EPONINE:The Last Black Heir THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS
by bloodrosered
Summary: The second book of Eponine's adventures with her friends: Harry, Ron, and Hermione as they solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets.
1. A Lonely, Unusual Summer

EPONINE: The Last Black Heir

Book II: The Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 1

An Unusual, Lonely Summer

_La, la, la, la…_

Singing. The words were too mumbled to hear. A warm, pink blanket. A man with black hair and grey-blue eyes, smiling at her. No! Eponine didn't want to wake up. It was too nice. This was too real to be a dream…

Soon, Voldemort's face appeared.

"I'll find you and get that Stone from you!" he said, grabbing her arm.

She woke up, screaming. She found herself, lying in her bed in her tiny attic of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was barely light out. The clouds in the sky were dark and grey. Of course, it was going to rain today. The rooster crowed outside where Hagrid's hut was and the clock struck five times. It was 5 o'clock in the morning. It meant it was time to get up. Time to get up and do work. She had a list of things to do. The new students were coming in a few weeks and that meant lots to do: wood to chop, dusting, windows to be washed, floors to be washed (for the thousandth time this month), and so forth and so on.

Since she had spent the summer doing _nothing_ but work, she was bored. Snape gave her chores to do even though she did them again and again, thousands of times. Snape _still_ claimed that he couldn't see his reflection on the floors or the tables.

"If this doesn't shine like a mirror, your backside will," he would threaten.

All month, she was lonely and bored. The castle was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. She kept her ears alert though for Snape's footsteps. She knew what they sounded like whenever he was coming. She decided to use her powers to help her clean faster whenever Snape wasn't around. If he did, she would do them all elbow grease. She felt a bit braver to use her powers since the incident in the dungeons with her, Harry and Voldemort and Quirrell. Yet, she promised that she would not risk the exposure of her powers.

She didn't get any messages from any of her friends. The mere thought of them forgetting about her was painful. How could they forget about her? They promised at the end of the term that they would write to her, just to check to see how she was doing.

"Send your letters at night," she wrote when they were gone. "It's the best time for me and I'll reply that night."

She checked with Camille, her screech owl who lived in the rafters of her attic. No mail.

It was heartbreaking to not get any mail this summer. Eponine sobbed a bit while she was on her hands and knees, scrubbing the floor. She hated being alone! It was miserable to live in an empty castle with no one to talk to. Her friends were gone. She had nobody. Not even an ounce of love from anyone.

Hagrid tried to cheer her up by inviting her to tea. It helped a little, but not much.

"They haven't written to me in months, Hagrid," Eponine said, near tears. "Do you think they forgot about me?"

"Codswallop!" said Hagrid. "Of course they haven't forgotten you."

Even the house elves tried cheering her up by making her a birthday cake on her birthday, which was a bit dilapidated and messy. Still it didn't cheer her up. She missed her friends. It wasn't the same having them here.

After a long days work of scrubbing the floors from top to bottom, her knees ached and were scabbed from kneeling on them all day long and her hands were sore from scrubbing. Snape was standing in his room when he saw her come in.

"You," he said. He _never _used her real name; he always referred to her as either 'you' or 'girl' with some kind of insult in front of it. The only time he used her name was to call her if she were far away or if he was really angry.  
"What is it?" she replied, flatly, uninterested in what he had to say.

"Don't speak in that tone, girl," he replied.

She apologized quietly.

"I'm organizing papers for the new term. I want you to go to your room and be quiet. I don't want _any _distractions while I'm working."

"Sure," she replied, flatly again.

She went up to her tiny attic in hopes there would be mail for her to read…only there wasn't any mail…there was laughter. There, on her bed, jumping was a house elf; she knew all the house elves at Hogwarts, but this one she didn't recognize. The house elf had large, bat-like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls. It had a long, thin nose and it was wearing an old pillowcase, with rips for arm-and-leg holes. Eponine knew that all house elves wore clothes like that: it was the mark of its enslavement. Eponine understood how they felt: she herself was abused, threatened and insulted all the time. The house elves that worked in Hogwarts wore clothes of whatever they could find that the students had left behind.

"Eponine Black!" said the house elf in a high-pitched voice Eponine was sure it would carry down the stairs of her attic to Snape's room. "Such an honor it is to meet you."

Eponine looked out her door to make sure Snape was not there, listening. She closed the door.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Dobby, Miss. Dobby the house elf."

"Not to be rude or anything, but this is not a good time for me to have a house elf in my attic," she said. "My master will beat me if he finds out that I have a house elf in my room."

"Oh, yes, Miss," said Dobby. "Dobby understands. Dobby shares Eponine's pain, miss. Dobby gets beatings all the time. Dobby has come to tell you, Miss…it is difficult…Dobby wonders where to begin…"

"Well, why don't you sit down?" she gestured to the bed.

"_S-sit down?_" he stammered. To Eponine's horror, the elf burst into tears…noisy tears.

"Dobby, shh!" Eponine whispered, panicked that Snape would hear. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you."

"Offend Dobby!" it choked. "Dobby has heard of your greatness, Miss. But, never been asked to sit down by a witch—like an _equal_…" He fixed his great eyes on her with watery adoration.  
"I suppose you haven't met any decent wizards," she replied, trying to cheer him up.

"Oh, yes." Then, he paused. "That was an awful thing to say." Then, without warning, he walked towards a bureau with the legs missing and began to bang his head furiously, shouting, "_Bad_ Dobby! _Bad_ Dobby!"

"Don't!" she hissed, springing up to pull him away, panicked that the noise would make Snape come charging up.

"Dobby had to punish himself, Miss," he said. "Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, Miss…"

"I see," she said, trying to be understandable.

"If Dobby's family ever knew that he were here…But Dobby had come to ask for Eponine's help… …Dobby has come to tell you that Harry Potter will not listen to Dobby. Dobby has warned Harry Potter not to go back to Hogwarts of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year."

"But why?" she asked.

"There is a plot, a plot to make most terrible things happen this year. You, Eponine, must prevent Harry from coming back here."

"But why? And what is this plot? Who's plotting these terrible things?"

Dobby made a funny choking noise and grabbed his ears and pulled them frantically down hard.

"RRR," he said, between clenched teeth. "Can't…say…"

"Alright," she said, trying to keep the elf quiet. "I understand why you can't tell me, but…"

Suddenly, Dobby grabbed a rusted candlestick and started beating himself over the head with it. Eponine struggled with Dobby, trying to wrench it out of his hands…soon, there were pounding footsteps approaching Eponine's attic.  
"Get in there!" she said, dragging Dobby to a broken armoire, shutting him inside. "And be quiet!"

Soon, the door flung open and Snape's angry face poked in: his black eyes glittered, his teeth were gritted, and his sallow face was a nasty, brick red.

"What the _bloody hell_ are you doing up here?" he said between his gritted, yellow teeth.

"Um…I was just…" Eponine stammered.

"Dammit, you worthless girl! I'm trying to get all my papers organized and ready for the new term. You're distracting me with your noise."

"I'm…sorry…" she stammered.

"One more sound and you'll rue the day you were born. Savvy?"

"Yes, sir."

He slammed the door in her face; the furniture rattled. She let Dobby out of the closet.

"Why do you think _I _should stop him?" asked Eponine.

"Dobby has heard of Eponine's powers about how she drove He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named away years ago," he said. "Dobby has also heard from Harry Potter how Eponine and Harry Potter defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named last year. Harry Potter is in grave danger and he mustn't come back to Hogwarts."

"No!" she said. "I won't let you prevent him. He's my friend."

"A friend who doesn't even _write_ to Eponine Black?" said Dobby, slyly.

"Well, I expect…" suddenly her voice trailed off. "Wait a minute. How do _you_ know that my friends haven't been writing to me?"

Dobby backed away, shuffling his feet.

"Eponine Black mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby thought that if her friends had forgotten her, she might help Dobby stop Harry Potter from coming back to Hogwarts." He nimbly pulled out a thick wad of envelopes from the inside of the pillowcase he was wearing.

"Give me those…_now!_" she said, angrily. Some furniture trembled as mind waves pounded through her brain.

"No!"

Before she could move, Dobby darted to the door and sprinted down the stairs to Snape's room. Eponine's mouth was dry and her stomach tossed and turned, she sprang after him, trying to avoid any squeaky steps from her attic. Snape was sitting at his desk, going through papers. She saw Dobby standing just at the entrance of her attic.

"Dobby, get back here!" she said, softly but firmly.

He shook his head and snapped his fingers. A stack of Snape's neatly organized papers levitated only slightly off the floor.

"Don't do this! Please! He'll kill me…" she replied, desperately.

"Eponine Black must say she'll help Dobby stop Harry Potter from coming to Hogwarts," he whispered.

"I can't. Harry's my friend. I won't betray him."

"Then, Dobby must do it, miss. For Harry's own good."

Again he snapped his fingers…the papers levitated higher. Eponine tried using her powers to save the papers from being flung all over the place…soon there was a noise that sounded like fingernails being dragged across a blackboard…she winced and gripped her head. She tripped on a loose floorboard and suddenly, all the papers that Snape had neatly organized burst like fireworks into the air. They fell like snow. She found herself at the feet of her master, who glared angrily at her.  
She saw that Dobby had snapped his finger and disappeared like smoke before her eyes before she could say anything.

"YOU STUPID, CLUMSY GIRL!" he yelled. "How _dare _you! You've messed everything I had neatly organized!"

He grabbed her by the hair to have her stand and he boxed her ears, hard. She let out a shriek of pain.

"Clean up this mess!" he yelled, shoving her on the floor; her face bumped the desk leg slightly. "Then, you will be soundly lashed. I hope you're happy that you've ruined everything that I've organized."

She got on her hands and knees and began picking up the papers. Snape directed her to which paper went in which pile. She felt a dull, throbbing pain in the corner of her eye from where her face bumped. After she organized all of Snape's scattered papers, Snape lashed her with a leather strap and sent to her room, locking her inside for the remainder of the night. She sobbed quietly with a sore back.

Stupid Dobby! She wished she had kicked him or something, maybe used her powers to snatch the letters out of his hands…no! She was an idiot not to think about that at the time!

Yet, what just happened when she tried to use her powers…it was as though something was preventing her from using them. That strange noise she heard in her head and that splitting headache to follow. What had happened? She thought she had control over them. She had worked so hard over the summer to get them in control and now they acted as though when they first appeared.

She was too sore to even think of answers right now. She lied on her bed, trying to dream away what had just happened…


	2. The New Term

Chapter Two

The New Term

Eponine had never been miserable since the paper-exploding incident with Snape. Because of that, Snape locked her in her room every night until the new term began. She was kicking herself for not stealing those letters with her powers from Dobby. She would've felt much better, but Dobby had all her letters and she was sure that she would never read them now. Dobby was far away with them.

She sighed as she was chopping wood for the Common Rooms. She stacked it neatly in a basket for the dormitories and the ones she couldn't fit, she placed in a woodpile. She lugged the wood across the grounds and up to the dormitories with all the strength she had.

Now that the new term was going to start, she wasn't really looking forward to it. There would be new students in Slytherin to tease her about how ugly she was and with newer pranks for her while the returning students with new ways to trip her up.

The only good thing she had to look forward to was her friends, Harry, Ron and Hermione. They were probably wondering why she hadn't written back all summer, but she would tell them what happened. She was excited to see her friends again…

Sunset was approaching and the sky was becoming dark. She swept the Entrance Hall, hidden in shadows so that nobody would notice her. She could hear it filling up with voices. She hid behind a column and looked for her friends. Funny, she only saw Hermione. She approached her, carefully making sure the coast was clear from any signs of Snape.

"Eponine!" said Hermione. She ran to her.

"Hello, Hermione," she said with a slight smile on her face.

"I haven't heard from you all summer," she said. "I've been worried about you."

"Well, let's just say a series of unfortunate events happened…" She told Hermione about Dobby the house-elf who had shown up at her attic, asking for her to help him stop Harry Potter from coming to school.

"Well, that explains why Harry and Ron weren't on the train," said Hermione.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I waited for them so we could share a compartment together on the train, but they never showed up."

"Strange."

"Do you think Harry took this house-elf's warning seriously?"

"I dunno. But why keep Ron from coming to school?"

"Another good question. We'll just have to ask them when they get here…if they ever do."

"Miss Granger," said McGonagall. "Please come to the Great Hall. We're beginning the feast."

"I'll see you later," she said.

Eponine watched as Hermione disappeared. Funny, she didn't see Snape sitting at the table. Where was he? Normally, he would call her before the start-of-term banquet and they would already be sitting.

"You, girl," a voice soon said. "Come with me!"

She stopped sweeping and followed him. She saw Harry and Ron standing behind them, their faces pale and frightened. She could tell they were in trouble.

"And don't you _dare_ talk to them!" he said to her.

Together, the three of them walked silently behind Snape, looking at each other. Eponine was bursting to ask them what had happened and why they hadn't shown up. They were led away from the delicious smell of food that was wafting from the Great Hall and the warmth and light, down a narrow stone staircase that led into the dungeons.

"In!" he said, opening a door halfway down the cold passageway and pointing.

First, Ron and Harry entered while Snape went in next flanked by Eponine. They entered Snape's office, shivering. The shadowy walls were lined with shelves of large glass jars, in which floated all manner of revolting things. Eponine _hated_ all those things, especially being locked in the storage closet. . The fireplace was dark and empty. Snape closed the door and turned to his desk and sat down. Eponine stood in the shadows, pretending to be invisible.

"You were seen," he hissed, showing them the headline of today's issue of the _Evening Prophet_: _FLYING FORD ANGLIA MYSTIFIES MUGGLES_. "By no less than seven Muggles." He threw the newspaper, which landed at Eponine's feet. "Do you have _any_ idea how serious this is?" They said nothing. "You have risked the exposure of our world, not to mention the damage that you inflicted on a Whomping Willow that's been on these grounds before you were born."

"Honestly, Professor Snape," said Ron. "I think that tree did more damage to us."

"_Silence!_" he snapped. It made Eponine jump a bit. "I assure you that you were in Slytherin and your fate rested with me, the both of you would be on the train home tonight." Ron and Harry's faces turned whiter than chalk. "As it is…"

"They are not!" said a voice from the door. It was Dumbledore, flanked by McGonagall. Dumbledore looked very grave.

"Professor Dumbledore," said Harry. "Professor McGonagall."

"Headmaster," said Snape, pointing a long, yellow finger at Ron and Harry. "These boys have flouted the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry. As such…"

Dumbledore held up a hand to silence Snape.

"I'm well aware of our bylaws, Severus," he said. "Having written a few of them myself. However, as head of Gryffindor House, it is for Professor McGonagall to determine the appropriate action."

"We'll go get our stuff, then," said Ron, gloomily.

"What are you talking about, Mr. Weasley?" asked Professor McGonagall, confused.

"You're going to expel us, aren't you?"

There was a long pause. They had looks as though Christmas had been cancelled.

"Not today, Mr. Weasley," she said. "But I must impress upon both of you the seriousness of what you have done. I will be writing to both your families tonight and you will receive detention."

Snape stared at the boys full of venom; he had been looking forward to seeing them expel. Eponine smiled.

"Go finish your work," he said, coldly.

Eponine sprinted back up the stairs to where she left her broom. She saw Ron and Harry walking up the stairs.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," they said.

"So, why were you guys late? And what's the deal with the flying Ford Anglia in _The Evening Prophet_?"

They told them that they couldn't get to Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters because for some strange reason the gateway had sealed itself. Harry said something about a house-elf named Dobby coming to his house, warning him to not come back.

"You know, that same house-elf came to my attic to ask me to help him stop you from coming to Hogwarts," she said. "But I said, 'No. Harry is my friend.' Then, he started levitating Snape's papers and all of a sudden, it was like my powers were unstable again…like someone suppressed them…"

"That's interesting. You've been practicing all summer, haven't you?" said Ron.  
"Yea. And all of a sudden, they're back to the way they were when they first emerged. It makes no sense."

"EPONINE!" yelled Snape's voice from the dungeons. "YOU'D BETTER NOT BE TALKING TO POTTER AND WEASLEY!"

"I'm NOT!" she lied. "Just to myself." To them, she whispered, "I gotta go. My master will have my hide if he sees me talking to you."

They nodded and said their 'see you laters.'

The next morning was the first day of classes. Eponine, of course, got up early and collected shoes from all the dormitories to polish. She spent the day with Snape in his class, sitting in her dark little corner, polishing shoes. She refused to give any hints in class since she knew Snape was in a bad enough mood already because he was angry that Harry and Ron weren't expelled. She thought it would be best to wait until his anger ceased.

During lunch, she swept the stairs that led to the classrooms. Soon, a very good looking wizard with wavy blonde hair and bright blue eyes with luggage walked past Eponine. He wore gold robes and his smile consisted of white teeth. He seemed kind of lost.

"Can I help you?" asked Eponine.

"Ah," he said. "Yes. I'm looking for the Defense Against the Dark Arts room. Do you know where it is?"

"Right this way."

She led him up some stairs to the floor where the Defense Against the Dark Arts rooms were. The wizard kept staring at Eponine.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked.

"No, no, no, no. Just never seen you before."

"I'm Eponine, the Hogwarts skivvy. If you need me to clean anything, you can find me."

"Gilderoy Lockhart."

He shook hands with Eponine's own dirty hand. His hand felt smoother than hers and he shook it firmly.

"Well, thank you, Miss Eponine. You are indeed a kind girl." He paused and stared at her for a moment. "You seem so familiar though. Perhaps I've seen someone like you before. Well, thanks again for directing me."

Eponine decided to shrug it off. She really found this wizard to be quite annoying…good looking, but _quite_ annoying and dim-witted. Soon, he patted her on the bottom. She made a startled jump.

"What was that??" she exclaimed.

"Oh. Sorry. Just a habit of mine I do with the help at home. So sorry…"

Eponine was disgusted. It wasn't enough that she was being abused by Snape and his clone army, and now she was being groped!

"Fresh!" she muttered.

She decided to shake it off and go back to sweeping the floors. Soon, the floors were filled with students who were changing classes. She waved to Hermione, Ron and Harry as they went to the floor for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Eponine kept sweeping the floors. By the time she had gotten to the floor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, students were running out in panic. They trampled all over her just clean floor. She sighed with exasperation as there were dusty footprints all over. She went to the classroom and saw that there were Cornish Pixies flying all over the place: electric blue with black eyes, tiny rainbow wings, pointed faces and voices so shrill that it was like listening to a lot of budgies arguing. There was chaos everywhere when she saw the room: grabbing inkwells and sprayed the class with them, shredded books and papers, tore pictures from the wall and threw them, up-ended the waste basket, grabbed bags and books and threw them all over the place. One pixie threw a book at Eponine, which she dodged and another grabbed her broom and began beating her over the head with it. She felt her mind flex and the pixies soon bumped into each other like bumper cars.

"_Immobulus_!" said Hermione.

Soon, all the pixies were frozen in their spot. Hermione smiled proudly that she had succeeded into capturing the wild Cornish pixies. Together, the four of them stuffed them back into their cage.

"I guess I'll clean up this mess," said Eponine.

"We'll help you."

"No thanks. I can do…"

"'Ponine, we're not taking 'no' for an answer," said Hermione. "It would take you all day just to clean up this mess."

"Fine. You can help me pick up the papers, but nothing else."

They nodded in agreement.

"So, where's Lockhart?"

"Guess," said Ron.

"Hiding out, is he?" she said. "How did a dim-wit like him become a professor?"

"Search me," said Harry.

"Can you _believe_ him!" Ron roared as he stuffed some pixies into their cage.

"He just wants to give us some hands-on experience," said Hermione.

"_Hands-on_?" said Harry. "Hermione, he didn't have a clue what he was doing…"

"Speaking of 'on-hands experience'," Eponine said. "Today, he just _groped_ me in the hall as though I were some piece of meat."

They all looked shocked.

"Lockhart _groped_ you?!" said Harry.

"I know, how _dare_ he! He is so fresh!"

Hermione had a jealous look. "Lucky!"

"Lucky?! I was groped by a man who happens to be a professor. I've been abused, teased, and tormented in all sorts of ways. But to be groped by a staff member is just _way_ out of line!"

"Did you say anything?" asked Harry.

"I just said 'what was that?' and he was like all, 'oh, sorry. Just a habit of mine I do with the help at home.'"

"If he does it again, go to McGonagall or Dumbledore," suggested Ron. "That'll be a good way to get rid of the dim-wit."

"Oh, shut up, Ron!" said Hermione. "He _did_ apologize, you know."

"Hermione, how would you feel if a grown man just walked up to you and grabbed your arse for no reason in particular?"

"I certainly wouldn't have minded if it were Lockhart," said Hermione.

"Oh my God!" Eponine said. "You _love_ him, don't you?!"

"Shut up!" she said, her face turning red.

The four of them cleaned up the mess, which took a long time to clean up. Once they finished picking up the papers, they left for class.


	3. Memories, Mudbloods and Murmurs

Chapter Three

Memories, Mudbloods, and Murmurs

Eponine kept her eye on Lockhart to make sure he didn't grope her again; if he so much as touched a single hair on her head, she would go to Dumbledore or McGonagall in a heartbeat. She always saw him checking her out on the stairway.

"Lockhart," she said, irritably. "If you keep ogling me like a specimen in the zoo, I will tell the Headmaster and Headmistress. I don't appreciate you doing that. It makes me very uncomfortable."

"Sorry," he said. "You remind me of a girl I met. Very nice girl, pretty too. Her name was Jane…if I remembered correctly. Sweet Jane…"

(sweet jane)

Eponine saw images in her mind: a man standing beside her crib, hugging a woman: blonde hair, brown eyes, a slightly upturned nose…

"I love you, sweet Jane," said the man's voice. The name Jane repeated over and over in her head…

"You have Andromeda's nose, Bellatrix's ears, Sirius's eyes, and Jane's face. Do you any of these names sound familiar?"

She shook her head no. Eponine's mind flooded with questions. Who was this Jane? Who were all these people he just mentioned? And why tell her this?

"Used to have a HUGE crush on Jane…" Lockhart went on and on. "Sweet girl she was. That girl stole kisses faster than a thief stealing moneybags…"

"EPONINE!" yelled Snape. "Are you lazing about again?"

"No," she said.

"Sorry, Professor Snape," said Lockhart. "Just having a little chit-chat with Eponine."

"Professor Lockhart, my servant is not allowed to engage in any conversation with anyone unless it deals with work," he said, silkily.

"I'm sorry, Professor Snape. _This_ is your servant? This young lady is _your_ servant?"

"Yes."

"I see. Well, I apologize for wasting her time with my meaningless talk, Professor Snape. Carry on, Miss Eponine."

He turned his heel and went towards his office.

"What was he talking to you about?" Snape asked, suspiciously. His eyes narrowed, resembling slits with black dots.

Eponine shrugged. "I dunno. I was treating his talking like white noise."

"Good. And keep it that way." He turned his heel and left her to her work.

The leaves were falling and Eponine was outside in the courtyard raking leaves in a tattered shawl. The Slytherins enjoyed making her neat leaf piles blow up so that she had to rake them again. It wasn't until McGonagall saw what they were doing and yelled at them for using magic and took points off from their house. Eponine couldn't help but think about the names Lockhart had mentioned: Bellatrix, Andromeda, Sirius, and Jane. Who were they? Jane and Sirius were the only names that sounded familiar…

"I love you, sweet Jane," the man's voice said.

"I love you, Sirius," said the woman's voice.

_La, la, la, la…_

The singing again inside her head was playing; the words were still garbled. The blonde woman holding a fuzzy, pink blanket bouncing her…a brown haired, grey eyed man doing the same thing…they were singing…they said the same thing to her…

"I love you, Eponine."

She heard Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, was talking to his team about how they were going to train harder, longer, and earlier. Soon, she saw the Slytherin team approaching the Gryffindors.

"What? I don't believe it!" he said.

They were all dressed in their green Quidditch robes and held what looked like new broomsticks.

"Where do you think you're going, Flint?" said Wood.

"Quidditch practice," he replied.

"I booked the pitch for Gryffindor today."

"Easy, Wood. I got a note." He handed him a parchment.

"'I, Professor Snape, do hereby give Slytherin team permission to practice today owning to the need to train the new Seeker.'" He paused. "You got a new Seeker? Who?"

From behind the six large figures before them came a seventh, smaller boy, smirking all over his pale, pointed face. It was Draco Malfoy.

"Malfoy?" said Harry, incredulously.

"That's right, Potter," he said. "That's not all that's new this year."

Ron and Hermione ran to join the Gryffindor team, sensing trouble between the two rivals. Eponine joined them, clutching her rake tightly. Ron spotted seven highly polished, brand-new handles and seven sets of fine gold lettering the words _Nimbus Two Thousand and One_ gleamed under the Gryffindor's noses in the early morning sun.

"Those are Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones," said Ron. "How did you get those?"  
"A gift from Draco's father," said Flint, smiling smugly.

"You see, Weasley, unlike some, my father can afford the best," said Malfoy, smugly.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to _buy_ their way in," said Hermione, sharply. "They got in on pure talent."

The smug look on Malfoy's face flickered; his cold eyes were reduced to slits.

"No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood," said Malfoy.

Everyone gasped in horror because they knew Malfoy said something bad. Eponine said, "How _dare you_!" along with Alicia Spinnet. Hermione looked hurt as though she had been stabbed in the heart by a cold knife.

"You'll pay for that one, Malfoy," said Ron, pulling his wand out. "Eat slugs!"

Soon, there was a loud bang and a jet of green light came out the wrong end of Ron's wand, hitting him in the stomach, sending him reeling backward onto the grass. The Slytherins laughed and the Gryffindors looked concerned and ran to him.

"You OK, Ron?" said Eponine.

His face was a nasty purple color as though he was about to hurl and he turned over on all fours.

"Say something!" said Hermione.

Ron opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, he made a retching sound and a slug dribbled out of his mouth onto the grass. The Gryffindors made groans of disgust. Soon, there was a flash from a camera.

"Wow!" said a boy's voice. "Can you turn him around, Harry?"

"No, Colin, get out of the way!" said Harry, angrily, pushing him away.

"Take him to Hagrid's," suggested Eponine. "He'll know what to do."

They nodded. Harry and Hermione supported Ron out of the courtyard and across the grounds towards Hagrid's hut, which lay at the edge of the forest. Another slug came out. The four of them went to Hagrid's house and Eponine knocked on the door, frantically.

"Coming," he said. He opened the door. "Oh, 'Ponine, hello there. What's going on?"

"It's Ron," she said. "He's sick; puking up slugs."  
They brought him inside and Harry explained hastily what had happened as they sat him down; Hagrid didn't seem too perturbed by Ron's slug problem. He went outside and got a rather, large, wooden bucket and plunked it in Ron's lap.

"This calls for a specialist's equipment," he said. "Nothing to do but wait till it stops, I'm afraid." Again, Ron puked up another slug. "Better out than in. Who's Ron trying to curse anyway?"

"Malfoy," said Harry. "He called Hermione…well, I don't know exactly what it means."

Hermione got up, turning away as though she were trying to hide her tears.

"He called me a Mudblood," she said.

Hagrid gasped, outraged. "He didn't!"

"What's a Mudblood?" asked Harry.

"It means 'dirty blood'," said Hermione, her voice trembling. "Mudblood's a really foul name to call someone who is Muggle-born—someone with non-magic parents. Someone like me." She paused. "It's not a term one hears in civilized conversation."

"You see, the thing is, Harry," said Hagrid. "There are some wizards, like the Malfoy family, who think they're better than everyone because they're what people call pure-blood."

"That's horrible," said Harry.

Ron retched again and another slug came out. "It's disgusting," he moaned.

"And it's codswallop to boot. Dirty blood. Why there isn't a wizard who isn't alive today that's not half-blood or less," said Hagrid.  
Hermione made a weak smile with tears almost ready to leak.

"More to the point, they've yet to think of a spell that Hermione can't do."

"Don't you think about it, Hermione," said Eponine. "Don't you think about it for one minute."

She hugged Hermione. Eponine could feel tears soaking her shawl.

Eponine decided to leave Hagrid's hut and go back to raking leaves, since she didn't want Snape wandering the grounds, looking for her. She had already four neat piles of leaves stacked up that took all day to rake those leaves into neat piles. They were ready to be hauled in sack cloths to the Dark Forest.

"Excuse me, Cinder-soot," said Malfoy's voice. He kicked her already neatly piles of leaves. The Slytherins laughed.

"You know, you _could_ go _around_ the leaves, Malfoy," she said, annoyed that this was the fifth time she had to rake the leaves due to the Slytherins messing up her piles.

"Why should I? It's funnier. You so painstakingly spent all day raking these leaves and then I kick them down and watch you rake them up again."

"And you do this to prove what an arse you are?" she said, irritably.

This wiped the smile off of Malfoy and the other Slytherin teammates' faces.

"Excuse me?" Malfoy said, incredulously.

"You heard me loud and clear, Malfoy," said Eponine, defiantly and unafraid.

With that, he slapped Eponine across the face. A red handprint began to form on her pale cheek. She scoffed slightly. The Slytherin teammates oohed mockingly and some giggled.

"That's right. Teach her a lesson, Malfoy," said Flint.

"I'm glad Snape treats you this way, Cinder-soot," he said. "That way you'll learn a little respect towards your superiors."

"HA!" she said. "Superior? I don't think so. You are _nothing_ more than a spoiled brat. You go to rich Mummy and Daddy, crying about how unfair your life is and they have all the money in the world to make your wishes come true. You buy your way into the Slytherin team and you buy them new brooms because you want to compensate for the lack of talent you have. It's pathetic."  
"How _dare_ you!" he said. Again, he slapped her only harder. This time, she fell on the ground, cupping her face. Tears were starting to leak out from the sting.

"You know what's pathetic, Cinder-soot," he said. "Your parents _never_ wanted you. They just dumped you here. And everybody knows that you're a bastard child too. Do you know what happens to unwanted, bastard children? They're sent away to work in the wizard world: they can't even get an education in magic because they can't pay for it. That's what you are: a poor, bastard country girl."

Eponine had enough; she leapt up from the ground and shoved Malfoy down; rage glittered in her eyes. She jumped on top of him and started hitting him in the face. Together the two of them wrestled on the ground, rolling in the mud. His teammates was about to join in when a powerful, invisible force threw 

them back. They ran away, too scared to even join the fight. They pulled each other's hair, scratched, bit, and punched each other.

"STOP THIS!" yelled McGonagall's voice. "STOP THIS AT ONCE!"

She pulled the two of them apart. There were streaks of blood from scratching, hair was messy, and they were covered in mud from head to toe. Eponine had a bloody nose and a black eye forming while Malfoy's hair was messy, muddy and there were some bloody scratches and a bloody nose from him as well.

"HOW DARE YOU!" she said to Malfoy. "Ten points from Slytherin for fighting, Malfoy! And you will receive detention." She turned to Eponine, "Eponine, explain yourself! What is the meaning of this fight?"

Eponine didn't say anything; the rage was still burning inside her, breathing hard, shallow breaths and her face flushed with fury. She explained about how he had started the fight by kicking her leaf pile down, insulting her and slapping her.

"He called me names," she said, wiping her bloody nose.

McGonagall looked at her; even though she was a stern woman, she had a glitter of sympathy for Eponine. Though she was constantly abused by Snape and his classmates, there was not much she could do to help her.

"I shall speak to you in my office and to your master as well about your punishment," she said. She turned to Malfoy, "I will speak to Professor Snape about your points, Mr. Malfoy."

Malfoy groaned, "That's not fair! She doesn't get punished for what she did! She attacked me first!"

"She will be punished," said McGonagall, in an assuring voice. "Now go to your dormitory, quietly."

They waited until Malfoy was out of earshot.

"I suggest you get some work done," said McGonagall. "And you should see the nurse about that bloody nose."

"I'll be fine," she replied.

McGonagall nodded. "Well, go then. Get some work done."

She ran; her heart pounded and her breath was shallow and hard. She grabbed a bucket and scrub brush. She filled the bucket with soapy water and began to scrub the floors. The sun was beginning to set. By dark, she was already on the second floor; just outside of Lockhart's office…she didn't see the strange shadow lurking about behind her. It stopped for a second, but turned away and continued down the hall.

Soon, there was a bone-chilling, ice-cold venomous voice intruded her mind.

"_Come…come…to me…"_

Eponine looked around but nobody was there.

"What?" she whispered.

She shook it off and went back to work, keeping her ears alert for Snape's footsteps. Again, it came back.

"_Blood…I smell blood…let me rip you…let me kill you. Kill! Kill! KILL!"_

The hairs on Eponine's neck stood on end and she stood up from the floor. She heard what sounded like movement coming from inside the walls. She followed it, only to run into Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Eponine!" said Harry. "Did you hear that?"

"I heard something speak," said Eponine.

Harry stared at Eponine, shocked.

"You heard the voice?" he said, incredulously.

"Yes."

Ron and Hermione stared dumbfounded.

"It's moving," she said.

"I think it's going to kill," said Harry. He broke into a run, ignoring Ron and Hermione's bewildered faces.

"Kill?" said Ron.

"Harry, wait! Not so fast!" Hermione called.

Together they ran towards the last, deserted passage on the second floor. They saw it was wet with water.

"Funny," said Eponine. "I don't remember this floor being wet. I don't think I even got to this hall."

They walked a few steps and Harry stopped the three of them. They saw twenty spiders scurrying towards hole in the window, fighting to get through there as if they were running for their lives, hurrying to get outside.

"Strange," said Harry. "I've never seen spiders act like this."

"I don't like spiders," said Ron, tensely.

Soon, their eyes went to the wet floor and they saw something red. They squinted in the darkness.

"What's that?" said Eponine.

Their eyes went towards where the reflection was and on the wall on their left. Foot high words, written in blood, shimmering in the light cast by the flaming torches.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE!

"It's written in blood," said Hermione.

"Oh no!" said Harry. They saw something hanging from a torch. Their eyes were fixed on a dark shadow beneath the torch. Al three of them realized what it was at once they approached it and it was a cat. "It's Filch's cat. It's Mrs. Norris."

She was hanging by her tail in the torch bracket, stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring.

Before they could do or say anything, from either end of the corridor where they stood came the sounds of hundreds of feet climbing the stairs and the loud, happy talk of well-fed people; next moment, they came crashing into the passage at both ends.

The chatter, bustle and noise suddenly died as the people in front spotted the hanging cat. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Eponine stood alone, in the middle of the corridor, as silence fell among the mass of students pressing forward to see the grisly sight. They stared at them as though they were the culprits.

"Enemies of the heir, beware," said Malfoy's voice. He turned to the Gryffindors. "You'll be next, Mudbloods."

"What's going on here?" said Filch's voice, shouldering his way from behind the sea of Gryffindor students. "Go on. Make way, make way." He stared at Harry. "Potter? What are you…" soon his eyes went to Mrs. Norris and his face fell, horrified. "Mrs. Norris?" Then, back to Harry, furious. "You've murdered my cat."

"No. No." said Harry.

"I'll kill you," he said quietly. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Argus," said Dumbledore's voice, coming from behind the Slytherin and Ravenclaw students. He was flanked by McGonagall, Snape, Professor Sprout (the Herbology teacher) and Lockhart. "What are…" he paused and read the message in blood. "Everyone will proceed to their dormitories immediately." Everyone turned to go. "Everyone, except…" they stopped. "You four." He pointed to Harry, Ron, Hermione and Eponine.

Lockhart stepped up to investigate the cat.

"She's not dead, Argus," said Dumbledore. "She has been Petrified."

Filch was about to cry.

"Ah, thought so," said Lockhart. "So unlucky I wasn't there. I know exactly the counter curse that could've spared her."

Ron, Harry and Eponine rolled their eyes, thinking, 'idiot' while Dumbledore looked over his half-moon glasses with skepticism.

"How she has been Petrified, I cannot say."

"Ask him," said Filch, still near tears. "It's him who's done it. You saw what he wrote on the wall."

"It's not true, sir. I swear. I never touched Mrs. Norris," said Harry loudly.

"Rubbish!" said Filch.

"If I may, Headmaster? Perhaps Potter and his friends were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time," said Snape, a slight sneer curling his mouth as though he doubted it. "However," he began to approach the four of them, staring at Harry as though he were trying to penetrate his thoughts. "The circumstances are suspicious. I, for one, don't recall seeing Potter at dinner."

"I'm afraid that was my doing, Severus," said Lockhart. "You see, Harry was helping me answer my fan mail."

"That's why Ron and I went looking for him, professor," said Hermione. "We just found him when he said…" Her eyes went towards Harry's direction.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" he said, narrowing his eyes.

"When I said I wasn't hungry," said Harry. "We were heading back to the Common Room when we found Mrs. Norris."

"It's true, sir," said Eponine. "I ran into them while I was scrubbing the floors."

Snape raised an eyebrow, skeptical. He turned towards Dumbledore.

"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," he said.

"My cat has been Petrified," sobbed Filch, furiously. "I want to see some _punishment_!"

"We will be able to cure her, Argus," Dumbledore replied, patiently. "As I understand, Madam Sprout has a very healthy growth of Mandrake. When matured, a potion will be made to revive Mrs. Norris." He turned towards the four of them, "In the meantime, I strongly recommend caution to all."

Soon, the professor's disappeared. It was just Snape and Eponine, standing face to face. She was afraid this time. He was attempting to penetrate her very thoughts as of what she was doing with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"Tomorrow, you are going to clean this up," he said, pointing to the wet floor and the wall. "Now, get out of my sight."

Eponine nodded and ran from him, picking up her bucket and scrub brush and went towards the broom closet. She still couldn't help but wonder about why she and Harry could hear this voice. She caught up to her three friends, who were on their way up the stairs to their dormitory while Eponine was going to the broom closet.

"It's a bit strange," said Hermione.

"Strange?" said Harry.

"You two hear this voice, a voice no one else can hear and then, Mrs. Norris turns up Petrified. It's strange."

"Do you think Eponine and I should've told them? Dumbledore and the others, I mean?" said Harry.

"Are you mad?" said Ron.

"No, Harry," said Hermione. "Even in the wizarding world, hearing voices isn't a good sign."

"She's right, you know," said a portrait of a long-bearded man, who apparently had been listening to their conversation.


	4. Headaches, Hell, and Repeated History

Chapter Four

Headaches, Hell, and Repeated History

Eponine was doing her usual rounds, collecting shoes to be polished. She had a huge black eye from yesterday. The Slytherins pelted her with shoes, shouting names like 'rat' or 'canary' at her because she got Malfoy in trouble just yesterday. She ignored them and continued to collect shoes from the other dormitories.

"YOU!" Snape barked. "In my office! NOW!"

She didn't know what she did now, but by the way Snape barked at her it told her she had done something bad. Once they were in the dungeon, he slammed the door, the shelves rattled.

He held up an envelope.

"What is this?" he asked.

Eponine stared. "A letter," she replied.

He slapped her across the face with the letter. "Do you have _any_ idea who it is from?"

"No," she said.  
"This is from Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy's father. I found it to be very interesting when I read it." He handed her the letter. "Read it!"

Eponine took the letter with trembling hands and opened it. She opened the folded letter and read with a trembling voice.

_Dear Professor Severus Snape_,

_My son, Draco, has informed me that your servant, Eponine, deliberately and viciously attacked him, causing damages to his face by scratching and punching him. I am coming to Hogwarts to furtherly investigate your servant. I presume to see that she is getting the 'proper' treatment for her actions. _

_Sincerely,_

_Lucius Malfoy_

"Well?" said Snape, coldly.

Eponine stared, saying nothing.

"Do you understand what this letter is saying?"

"Yes, sir. I do."

"Good. Well, _you_ are going to write the reply." He shoved her into his seat, handing a quill into her hand with a parchment in front of her. He gripped the back of her neck tightly, digging his fingernails into her neck. "You will dictate _exactly_…I mean, _exactly_ as I say. You will write as NEATLY as possible. Mess up even once and you'll experience more pain. Savvy?"

She nodded.

"Good. Now begin." She could feel his breath down the back of her neck. "Dear Lucius Malfoy, I have read your letter about my servant, Eponine and I am fully aware of her actions of what she has done towards your son, Draco. I will assure you that she is getting the 'proper' treatment. I will prepare for your visit. I sincerely apologize for her insolent behavior. I look forward to your visit. Sincerely, Professor Severus Snape."

Sweat poured from Eponine's temples, her hand trembled as she wrote, trying her best not to mess up and the weight of his hand pressed down on her neck hurt. She left a space for Snape to sign his name and he reread the letter.

"Good," he said. "It is satisfactory. Now get back to work before I cause you _more_ physical pain."

She took off running, rubbing the back of her neck; the bruised area throbbed slightly. She passed by McGonagall's classroom and found Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They greeted her cheerfully.

"You look so glum, 'Ponine," said Ron. "What's wrong?"

"Draco wrote a letter to his father, saying that I attacked him," said Eponine.

Harry and Ron leaned in with interest. "Really? Go on!" said Ron. "What did you do?"

Eponine told the story about how the fight started by him kicking the leaves down and slapping her, calling her names.

"And that's when I kicked his pure-blood arse," Eponine concluded.

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed. "What I wouldn't give to see Malfoy's arse get beaten by a girl!"

Harry and Ron laughed.

"So, Snape shows me a letter from Lucius, saying he's coming to investigate," Eponine said. "I have a bad feeling about this investigation."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have been fighting," said Hermione, sternly.

"Funny, you should talk," said Eponine. "Would you have kicked Malfoy's arse if he called you a 'mudblood' again?"

Hermione lost her words. "No! I would've gone to McGonagall!"

"Yes, you would!" said Ron.

"Oh, shut up!"

Eponine decided it was time to change the subject.

"So, did you find out anything about this Chamber of Secrets, guys?" she asked.

"Yes, we did," said Hermione. "McGonagall talked about it in class."

"You asked her?" said Eponine.

"Of course. We needed to know. What we've learned is that Hogwarts was founded over thousands of years ago by the four greatest wizards: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. While the three of the founders coexisted harmoniously, Salazar Slytherin wanted to be more selective about who was admitted into the school. He believed that magic learning should be kept within all-magic families. But, since he was unable to persuade the others, he left the school. But, before leaving, he built a hidden chamber in the school called the Chamber of Secrets. Before he left, he sealed it until that time when his own true Heir returned to the school. The Heir alone would be able to open the chamber and unleash the horror within and by so doing, purge the school of all those who, in Slytherin's view, were unworthy to study magic. It is said that what lies in the Chamber is a monster that only the Heir of Slytherin can control."

Eponine stared with wide eyes, worried.

"Well, do you think it's true? That there really is a Chamber of Secrets?" asked Ron.

"Of course," said Hermione. "At class today, McGonagall looked worried. All the teachers are."

"But if there really is a Chamber of Secrets and it has been opened, then…"

"The Heir of Slytherin has returned," said Hermione.

"You guys," said Eponine. "I've been working in this castle for almost eight years. I know every classroom and every floor by heart. To be honest, I've never even seen a Chamber of Secrets."  
"That's what McGonagall said," said Hermione. "She said that the school has been searched many times and that nobody's ever found it."

"So, my guess is it _must_ be very well hidden, knowing Slytherin," said Eponine. "Let's say there _is_ a Chamber of Secrets and the Heir of Slytherin has returned, the ultimate question is: who is it?"

"Let's think," said Ron. "Who do we know that thinks all Muggle-borns are scum?"

"If you're talking about Malfoy," said Hermione.

"Of course, you heard him. 'You'll be next, Mudbloods'."

"I heard him. But Malfoy, the Heir of Slytherin?"

"Maybe Ron's right, Hermione," said Harry. "Look at his whole family. The whole lot of them has been in Slytherin for centuries."

"Crabbe and Goyle must know," said Ron. "Maybe if we trick them into telling."

"Even they aren't that thick," Eponine said. "I couldn't even trick them into telling them that I had polished their shoes well enough."

"But, there might be another way," said Hermione. "Mind you, it would be difficult. Not to mention we'll be breaking about 50 school rules. And it will be dangerous. VERY dangerous."

The four of them went to the library. Together, Ron, Harry, and Eponine hid in a corner while Hermione went to look for a book. She brought over a book

"Here it is," said Hermione. "The Polyjuice Potion." She read: "Properly brewed, the Polyjuice Potion allows the drinker to transform himself temporarily into the physical form of another."

"You mean if Harry and I drink that stuff," said Ron. "We'll turn into Crabbe and Goyle?"

"Yes."

"Wicked! Malfoy will tell us anything."  
"Exactly. But it's tricky. I've never seen a more complicated potion." She scanned the receipe, running her finger down the list. "Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, knotgrass, powdered horn of a bicorn and shredded skin of a boomslang. Those won't be easy to get."

"Snape keeps some in his storage closet," Eponine said. She even dug into her apron pocket and pulled out a key. "And I have the key."

"Eponine! That's it! You could steal this stuff. You have unlimited access to the storage closet."

"Hermione," said Eponine. "I'm in enough trouble already for fighting with Malfoy. If my master found out I was stealing from his personal storage, you have _no_ idea what he would do to me." She paused. "However, I'm going to trust you with this key." She handed the key to Hermione. "I'll create a distraction while you steal the supplies. Then, return it once you've gotten the supplies. Snape sometimes sends me out of his classroom to do work."

"How long will it take to make, anyway?" asked Harry.

"Well, since the fluxweed has got to be picked at the full moon and the lacewings have to be stewed for twenty-one days…I'd say it'd be ready in about a month."

"A month?" exclaimed Harry. "But Hermione, if Malfoy is the Heir of Slytherin, he could attack half the Muggle-borns in the school by then."

"I know. But it's the only plan we've got."

It was Saturday morning. Eponine woke to find Snape waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs of her attic.

"Lucius Malfoy is here to see you," said Snape, smoothly. "To my office, girl." He pointed a long, yellow finger at her. "No funny business and speak only when spoken to. Savvy?"

She nodded.

Together, Eponine followed Snape down to the dungeons. It was colder since the weather was cold already. She shivered, clutching her ragged shawl, trembling with both the cold and the fear she was about to endure by Lucius Malfoy. Once there, Snape shoved her inside, saying, "In!"

There, in front of Snape's desk, stood Lucius Malfoy. He looked exactly like Draco: identical pale, pointed face, cold, grey eyes, and long blond hair. He stared at Eponine. He was dressed in black with a snake pendants on both sides of his fur stole. He carried a black walking stick that had the head of a snake with its mouth wide open and fangs exposed.  
"Eponine Black," said Lucius. "Lucius Malfoy. At last we meet."

Eponine said nothing.

"Forgive me," he pulled the girl closer and stared. He pushed aside the collar of her blouse aside with the top of his walking stick and stared at her necklace. It glowed slightly. "Your pendant is legend. Made by Nicolas Flamel himself and he yet chose a measly servant to be the Bearer of his Stone." He wrinkled his nose and kept staring at Eponine. With a gloved hand, he grabbed Eponine's face and turned it side to side.

"My, my! Yes, I definitely see some Black blood in you: Bella's ears, Andromeda's nose, Sirius's eyes. Such a pity your parents abandoned you." He spoke to her: "How old are you, girl?"

"Twelve," she replied softly.

"You have all your teeth? Show me your teeth."

Eponine flared her lips and showed him. They were still in good condition. Eponine always took good care of her teeth.

"Let me see your hands."

She held her hands out, showing them palms up. They were ruined from labor: chilblains, blisters, cuts, calluses and filth, especially under her fingernails. Mr. Malfoy wrinkled his nose, but looked pleased.

"Let me see your arm. Flex a muscle."

She flexed her muscle and Malfoy felt her thin arm; there was some muscle from hard labor. He seemed pleased.

"Well," he said to Snape. "She's very small and skinny. Is she starved, Severus?"

"Yes," he said. "Starved whenever she needs it and is fed meager meals."

"Good. I'm pleased to hear that." Turning back towards Eponine, he said, "You do hard labor?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. You do as you're told?"

"Yes sir. I do try to please my master."

"Good. I'm pleased to hear that." He turned towards Snape. "Does she?"

"Frankly, yes. She does obey, yet has a few flaws."

"Flaws? Such as?"

"Well, lazing about, socializing with the students, her temper and talking aloud."

"Does she get the 'proper' treatment?"

"Yes. Lashings, starvation, locked in the closet and extra work."

"Excellent." He turned towards Eponine. "You're lashed, girl?"

She nodded. "Yes. Often and very hard as well."

"Excellent. That ought to teach you, a poor excuse for a human to not disobey your master."

Eponine felt her blood boiling and rage was building up. She wanted to spit into Mr. Malfoy's face.

"Now, I want you to answer every question I ask you. 'I don't know' will not be an acceptable answer." He came up very close to her face, his nose almost touching hers. "You are aware that you deliberately attacked my son, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"Now, why did you do it?"

"Because…" she stared at Snape, who was looking at her coldly with those jet-black eyes and then, back at Lucius Malfoy's own cold grey eyes. "Because your son attacked me first: calling me names and slapping me. I was unable to resist temptation so I did it."

"I see," he said. "Severus, I'd like to see that this girl is lashed for her actions."

"Of course," Snape said, silkily. He was gone for a few minutes.

He returned with a leather strap and shoved her on the ground to her knees.

"I have a house-elf just like you, Eponine," said Lucius. "Defiant, just like you. He too needed to be broken. Just like you need to be broken."

Snape lashed her while Eponine screamed; her screams echoed throughout the entire castle. They didn't even sound human, almost creature-like. While the leather strap slapped Eponine's back, Lucius jumped slightly at the sound. Each hit was worse after the other. Soon, blood began to soak through Eponine's tattered blouse.

"Get yourself cleaned up!" said Snape, forcing her to her feet and shoving her towards the door. "Then, come back here with something useful for you to do."

Eponine nodded, tearfully.

"If I were you, Severus," said Lucius. "This girl needs to be watched. I don't think she can be trusted."

She went to the kitchen where the house-elves bandaged up the bloody welts. She returned to Snape's office with a basket full of shoes that needed to be polished.  
"You're going to be observed," said Snape. "I'm warning you, _any_ funny business at all and I'll have the strap back on your back faster than you can say 'unfair'. Savvy?"

She nodded, frightened.

Together, they went to the Quidditch field, Eponine was behind Snape. They went to the stands and sat down. The cold November winds blew and Eponine shivered beneath her ragged shawl. Once at the Quidditch field, they sat down in the professors' box with Lucius sitting next to Snape, dressed in a fur coat and hat. Eponine sat at Snape's feet like a dog and began polishing shoes.

Today's game was Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. She listened to the commentary, which was done by Lee Jordan. It went by quickly. The Slytherins were already beating Gryffindor by 30 to 90 now. It was because of the new broomsticks that Malfoy had given to them.

Soon, Eponine felt a headache coming on. She rubbed her head, trying to ignore it. But soon there was a noise similar to fingernails being dragged across a blackboard. Soon, her head felt like it was splitting in two. It hurt so much that soon she was rolling on the floor, moaning.  
"What are you doing?" yelled Snape. "GET UP! Quit rolling on the floor!"

Suddenly, she let out a scream of agony, gripping her head. She saw a ball…black…soon, it flew towards Harry's face. The waves of her mind rippled and focused on that black ball. It was a Bludger.

"Stop this!" yelled Snape. "You're embarrassing me!"

Clearly, Eponine couldn't stop. The pain was too much. She was kicking and pounding her fist on the floor of the bleachers. The Bludger kept flying after Harry, trying to knock him off his broom. She tried to stop this, but couldn't. She felt as though someone else was controlling her mind, steering her to make the Bludger go after Harry. , looping, spiriling, zigzagging and rolled, staying fixed on Harry, following every movement he made to get away from it. It whistled along behind Harry.

"Make it stop!" she screamed. "OH GOD! STOP THE NOISE!"

Soon, McGonagall and Dumbledore approached her and they turned towards two professors. "Get her out of here! Take her to the hospital wing."

"STOP THE NOISE! OH GOD! IT HURTS! MAKE IT STOP!"

She let out a long, loud, agonizing scream and soon passed out from it all…

"_Kill. Kill. Time to kill._"

That voice again that she had heard earlier. There was movement coming from inside the walls. Eponine's eyes slowly opened and blinked. Her head felt two sizes too big and she rubbed her head.

"Eponine," said Harry. His arm was in a sling.

"What? What happened?" she said, moaning.

"Madam Pomfrey said you've been out cold since the Quidditch match. What happened?"

"I don't know. I was hearing this noise and I got this headache…and the next thing I knew, my powers were being controlled." She suddenly went wide eyes. "Oh Harry! I'm sorry! It was me. I was controlling that Bludger. But, I swear, I tried to make it stop, but I couldn't. It was as though someone was steering my mind to control it."

"Who would do that?" asked Harry.

"I dunno. It happened once over the summer…but it hasn't happened since then."

Soon, Dobby appeared at the foot of Eponine's bed.

"Hello," he said. His goggling tennis ball eyes peered at Eponine in the darkness.  
"Dobby!" they said together.

"Harry Potter should've listened to Dobby," he said, miserably. "Harry Potter should've gone back home when he missed the train."

At first, Harry was filled with confusion and then, once the pieces fell into place, he stared at Dobby angrily. Dobby's lower lip trembled.

"It was _you_," said Harry, slowly. "_You_ stopped the barrier from letting Ron and me through."

"Indeed, yes, sir," said Dobby, sadly.

"You nearly got Ron and me expelled," he said, fiercely.  
"At least you would be away from here. Harry Potter _must_ go home. Dobby thought that with Eponine's powers that his Bludger would be enough to make Harry Potter see…"

"Wait!" said Eponine. "You? You were the one controlling my powers? _You_ were the one who got me in trouble with my master by making me mess up his papers?"

"And you made Eponine make that Bludger chase after me?" Harry said, incredulously.

"Dobby feels most aggrieved, sir and miss," he said, sadly. "Dobby had to iron his hands." He showed them his bandaged hands. Eponine could feel a slight twinge of pity, but was too busy filled with rage after finding out what had just happened.

"You'd better clear off before my bones come back, Dobby, or I might strangle you," said Harry, angrily.

The two of them stared venomously at Dobby. They got out of bed; Dobby jumped off and landed on his bottom, skittering away from the two advancing, angry Harry and Eponine.

"Dobby is used to death threats, sir," said Dobby. "Dobby gets them five times a day at home. I'm sure you feel the same way too, Eponine."

"Just because I'm a servant doesn't mean I could still fong you!" Eponine said, venomously. "How could you do that to me?!"

"I don't suppose you could tell me why you tried to kill me?" said Harry.

The two of them approached Dobby slowly while Dobby backed away, frightened.

"Not kill you, sir. Never kill you. Dobby remembers how it was before Harry Potter triumphed over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. We house-elves were treated like vermin, sir and miss. Of course, Dobby is still treated like vermin."

He sobbed and blew his nose in his filthy pillowcase. It was a pathetic sight to see. Eponine could see a miniature version of herself, sobbing as Snape backed her into a corner, staring angrily at her, yelling and showering her with blows. She felt her rage melt away and tears were leaking from her grey-blue eyes.

"Why do you wear that thing, Dobby?" Harry asked, curiously.

"This, sir?" he said, plucking at the pillowcase. "'Tis a mark of a house-elf's enslavement," said Dobby, tearfully. "Dobby can only be freed if his master presents him with clothes."

Eponine felt so sorry for Dobby. She wished her master would do the same: present her with clothes and she would be free. Eponine shared Dobby's pain: being constantly abused by their masters, dressed in rags and always looking sad and frightened.

Soon, there was a noise that startled the three of them. Dobby leaped up onto Harry's bed.

"Listen! Listen!" Dobby said, terrified. Harry and Eponine sat down together, leaning forward with interest. "Terrible things are about to happen at Hogwarts. Harry Potter must not stay here now that history is to repeat itself."

"Repeat itself?" said Eponine.

The two of them looked at each other.

"You mean this has happened before?" said Harry.

Dobby gasped, horror-struck about what he had just said, clapping his hands to his mouth. "I shouldn't have said that!" He grabbed the Skele-Gro bottle and started cracking it over his head, screaming, "_Bad_ Dobby! _Bad_ Dobby!"

"Stop it, Dobby!" Eponine said, sternly, wrestling the bottle out of Dobby's hands and set it aside.

Harry grabbed Dobby's pillowcase and pulled him in. "Tell us. When did this happen before? Who's doing it now?"

"Dobby cannot say, sir. Dobby only wants Harry Potter to be safe."

"No, Dobby! Tell us. Who is it?"  
Footsteps approached and soon, Dobby snapped his fingers and disappeared into thin air. They saw shadows and Eponine and Harry quickly went to their beds, laying down, pretending to be asleep.

"Put him here," said Madam Pomfrey, the nurse.

Two professors came in, carrying a stretcher that looked like a statue on it, lying still. They placed the stretcher next to the bed and Dumbledore and McGonagall placed the statue on the bed.

"What happened?" asked Madam Pomfrey, bending over the statue on the bed.

"There's been another attack," said Dumbledore.  
"I think he's been Petrified, Madam Pomfrey," said McGonagall. There was a pause. "Look. Perhaps he managed to take a picture of his attacker."

Eponine saw it was a small boy with blond hair, clutching his camera. Dumbledore took the camera out of his rigid grip and turned it over to open the back. Soon, there was a burst of smoke and the smell of melted plastic permeated the air.

"What can this _mean_, Albus?" said McGonagall.

"It means that our students are in great danger."

"What should I tell the staff?"

"The truth. Tell them Hogwarts is no longer safe. It is as we feared, Minerva. The Chamber of Secrets has indeed been opened again."

There was a long silence. Eponine and Harry's eyes grew wide with terror upon discovering this new information.

Once the professors were gone, they turned to face each other.

"We've got to tell the others," said Eponine. "I think you should tell Hermione to start on the Polyjuice Potion as soon as possible."

Harry nodded. Neither of them slept that night; they were too afraid that whatever was attacking the students would come and get them.


	5. The Dueling Club

Chapter Five

The Dueling Club

Once they were out of the hospital, Harry and Eponine parted. He promised to get the news as fast as he could to Hermione about starting on the Polyjuice Potion. Eponine went back to her usual routine of collecting shoes, mopping the floor, chopping and hauling wood for the fireplaces since the winter weather was coming.

December came quickly. Eponine shivered from the cold that she started bringing logs up to her room in order to keep from freezing to death. McGonagall had students who were planning to stay for the Christmas holiday. Harry, Ron, and Hermione signed up so they could work on the Polyjuice Potion and worm a confession out of Malfoy. While Eponine was on the stairs, mopping the floor, Hermione approached her…Snape was lurking about and saw them talking.

"You, servant!" said Hermione in a stern voice. "The toilet on the second floor is overflowing again! Mop up that water! It's revolting to walk in it."

"Yes, miss," she replied in a humble voice, keeping her eye on Snape. He smiled pleased that someone was being abusive towards his servant.

Once Snape was gone, Eponine gathered her bucket and mop and went towards the second floor bathroom. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Eponine were all waiting in there. A cauldron was set up on the floor.

"So, are we going to discuss the diversion?" asked Eponine.

"Yes. Today's Thursday so we have double Potions with the Slytherins," said Hermione. "Eponine, I assume you have a diversion in mind."

"Yes," she said. She thought for a moment, picturing as of where everyone sat. "Snape won't be sending me out until the advanced class comes in. So, I know Malfoy sits in front where he can kiss Snape between the back pockets of his trousers all the time by showing him what an excellent student he is," Ron and Harry laughed at this. "Goyle and Crabbe sit between Malfoy. So, I'll create a diversion by sending their cauldrons flying all over the place. If I were you, I'd take cover under the desks because it's going to be a lot of solution flying everywhere."

They nodded.  
"Wait for my signal, Eponine," said Hermione. "Then, you create the diversion."

Eponine nodded. "You'd better do it quickly. You only have ten, maybe fifteen minutes to get each of what you need. If Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle have enough potions in their cauldrons, spilling it everywhere would be enough time for you." She paused. "Got the key?"

Hermione nodded, showing the key.

"Let's do this," they said, putting their hands together as a team.

Soon, the three of her friends went to the dungeons that afternoon. It proceeded the usual way. Twenty cauldrons stood steaming between the wooden desks, on which stood brass scales and jars of ingredients. Snape prowled through the fumes, making waspish remarks about the Gryffindors' work while the Slytherins sniggered appreciatively. Draco Malfoy, who was Snape's favorite student, kept flicking puffer-fish eyes at Harry and Ron, who knew if they retaliated they would get detention faster than you could say 'unfair'.

Harry's Swelling Solution was far too runny, but he had other things on his mind. He was waiting for Eponine's diversion and hardly listened as Snape paused to sneer at his watery potion. When Snape turned and walked off to bully Neville Longbottom, Hermione turned towards Eponine and nodded.

Eponine concentrated on Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle's cauldrons. Waves pulsed through her brain as she flexed. Ugh! They were heavy! They trembled slightly. Suddenly, but slowly, they levitated.

"What the…?" Malfoy exclaimed, confused.

Suddenly, the cauldrons began to spin wildly and spraying Swelling Solution all over the place, showering the whole class. People shrieked as splashes of the Swelling Solution hit them. Malfoy got a full blast of it in the face and his whole head swelled up like a balloon. Goyle, blundered around, his hands over his eyes, which had expanded like dinner plates. Snape was trying to restore order and find out what happened. The cauldrons landed with a clang on the floor. Through the confusion, Eponine watched as Hermione slip quietly into Snape's storage closet.

"Silence! SILENCE!" Snape roared. "Anyone who has been splashed, come here for a Deflating Draft…when I find out who did this…"

Eponine held back her laughter, smiling evilly.

(he doesn't know it's me hee hee)

She couldn't help but snarff when she saw Malfoy's huge head, the size of a small watermelon.

(I always knew he had a big head)

As half the class lumbered up to Snape's desk, some weighted down with arms like clubs, others unable to talk through gigantic puffed-up lips. Eponine saw Hermione slide back into the dungeon, the front of her robes bulging. Quickly, she dropped the key and Eponine used her powers to make it skid across the floor before Snape turned around to see her.

"You, girl!" he said. "Get a mop and clean up this mess!"

She nodded, trying to look puzzled rather than bursting into laughter. She stood up, pretending to be looking through her pockets as if she had lost something.

"Well, what are you standing around for?" Snape barked.

"Oh, here's my key!" she said. "Thought I lost it. Stupid hole in my pocket. I keep forgetting to repair that."

Eponine unlocked the storage closet and got out a mop and a bucket of water. She always kept a spare in the closet in case there was a spill. She began cleaning it up, trying not to laugh, swearing she had cracked several ribs.

When everyone had taken a swig of antidote and the various swellings subsided, Snape swept over to the three fallen cauldrons.

"Alright," he said. "Who did this?"

There was a sudden hush over the twenty students in their seats. Eponine bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"When I find out who did this," he whispered. "I'll _make sure_ that person is expelled."

Suddenly, Eponine snarffed. Snape whirled towards her direction; his eyes glittering.

"Something amusing, girl?" he snapped.

She shook her head. He slapped the back of her head to shut her up. She moaned a quiet 'ow' and went back to cleaning up the mess.

Snape shooed Eponine out of his advanced Potions class to do some work so she wouldn't be 'lazing about'. Eponine went to the second floor bathroom and carried a bucket with soapy water as if she were going to scrub the entire bathroom.

"Nice job," said Hermione. "Our plan worked. Thanks to you, 'Ponine."

"Anytime," she said, getting on her hands and knees, scrubbing the floor. "Just make the Polyjuice Potion. I have work to do."

Harry was telling Ron and Hermione about what he and Eponine had heard in the hospital.

"Again?" said Hermione. "You mean the Chamber of Secrets has been opened before?"

"Of course. Don't you see?" said Ron. "Lucius Malfoy must've opened it when he was here at school. Now he's taught Draco to do it."

"Maybe," said Hermione. "We'll have to wait for the Polyjuice Potion to know for sure."

"Enlighten me," said Ron, looking nervous. "Why are we brewing this potion in broad daylight in the middle of a girls' lavatory? Don't you think we'll get caught?"

Eponine laughed. "No. Nobody ever comes in here," she replied.

"Then, why bother cleaning it?" asked Ron.

"Better to be cleaning an unused bathroom than to be lazing about."

"But why doesn't anyone come in here, 'Ponine?"

"Moaning Myrtle," she replied.

"Who?"

Eponine saw Moaning Myrtle's head poking out from a stall, just behind Ron. She was a squat ghost of a girl with pearly, round glasses and her dark hair was in pigtails. She was wearing a Hogwarts' school uniform.

"Moaning Myrtle."

"Who's Moaning Myrtle?"

"_I'm _Moaning Myrtle!" she yelled, scaring the living daylights out of Ron. She soared up to the sink and began to sob. "I wouldn't expect for you to know me. Who would talk about ugly, miserable, moping, moaning Myrtle?"

Myrtle let out a scream and soared past the four of them and dived into the toilet, hiding in the U-bend.

"She's a little sensitive," said Eponine.

"You _really_ need to get out of this castle, 'Ponine," said Ron. He turned to Hermione. "When do we add the bits of who we're turning into? Because I am _not_ drinking anything with Goyle's toenails in it."

"Those we add last," Hermione said. "If you don't want to use toenails, then rip out his hair instead." She rolled her eyes.

"I can swipe some Slytherin uniforms during laundry week," said Eponine.

"Excellent," said Hermione.

A week later, Eponine walked through the hall when she saw a small knot of people gathered around the notice board, reading a piece of parchment that had been pinned up.

"What's going on?" asked Eponine, lugging wood in her arms.

"They're starting a Dueling Club," said Harry. "The first meeting is tonight."

"Well, it could be useful," said Seamus Finnegan, a Gryffindor with an Irish accent. "Might come in handy one of these days…"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided that they were in. Eponine guaranteed that she would not be there since Snape won't allow her to watch _anything_.

By eight o'clock, Eponine thought that she was right about not going to the Dueling Club meeting, when in fact she was wrong. Snape had her come so she could keep an eye on her: he was suspicious about last week's spinning and exploding cauldrons incident and was sure that she had something to do with it.

Once there, the long dining tables had vanished and had been turned into a stage with the cycles of the moon from waxing to waning. The Great Hall was filled with chatter and people. Snape didn't look so happy for some reason, but Eponine decided to keep it shut.

"Gather round!" said Lockhart's voice. "Gather round!"

Eponine rolled her eyes. All the students gathered around the stage when they heard Lockhart say this. "Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me?" A silence confirmed it. "Excellent!" He smiled and all the girls in the crowd melted like butter. Lockhart was dressed in a grey outfit and a green cape hung from his shoulder.

"In light of dark events of recent weeks," he began. "Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this Dueling Club to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions."

(I'm sure you have)

"For full details, see my published works." He removed his robe and threw it into a sea of Gryffindor girls who lunged after it. It was caught by Angelina Johnson, who smiled happily.

"Let me introduce my assistant," said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. "Professor Snape."

Snape ascended onto the stage, his arms crossed, looking very livid. Eponine stood at the stage where her master walked up.

"He has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration. I don't want any youngsters to worry—you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him. Never fear."

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other, holding their wands up and then lowered them to their sides. They bowed and turned and walked five paces away. They raised their wands like swords, pointing them at one another.

"One…" Lockhart began to count. "Two…three…"

"_Expelliarmus!_" Snape cried. There was a dazzling gold light and Lockhart was blasted off his feet, flying several feet to the opposite end of the stage on his back.

There were some sporadic laughs amongst the crowd while some looked concerned, wondering if Lockhart was alright.

"An excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, tottering on his feet. "But if you don't mind me saying, it was pretty obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy."

"Perhaps it would be prudent," said Snape, "to teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor."

"An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape," said Lockhart. "Let's have a volunteer pair. Potter, Weasley, how about you?"  
"Weasley's wand causes devastation even with the simplest spells," said Snape. "We'll be sending Potter to the hospital wing in a matchbox. Might I suggest someone from my own house?" He shrugged. "Malfoy, perhaps?" He whirled around and gestured to Malfoy to get up on the stage. Malfoy hopped onto the stage.

"Good luck, Potter," said Lockhart.

"Thank you, sir," he replied.

"Wands at the ready," Lockhart said.

The two rivals raised their wands.  
"Scared, Potter?" Malfoy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You wish," he replied.

They dropped their wands and walked five paces away from each other. They turned around, holding their wands like swords.

"On the count of three," said Lockhart. "Cast your charm to disarm your opponent. Only to disarm. We don't want any accidents here." He paused and began to count. "One…two…"

"_Everte Statum!_" yelled Malfoy.

Gold light came out and hit Harry; he flipped through the air and landed on his side. The Slytherins were laughing while the other houses looked concerned. He stood up, raising his wand and pointed it towards Malfoy.

"_Rictusempra!_" he shouted.

A jet of silver light hit Malfoy in the stomach, sending him flying even further, landing on his bottom. Now the other houses were laughing at Malfoy. Even Eponine couldn't help but laugh. Snape grabbed Malfoy by the robes, forcing him to his feet and shoving him forward. Then, he turned towards Eponine giving her an icy stare. She shut up immediately.

"_I said disarm only!_" Lockhart shouted in alarm.

"_Serpensortia!_" shouted Malfoy.

The end of his wand exploded and cobra shot out of it, and fall heavily between the two of them. It raised itself, hood flared and hissing, ready to strike. There were screams as the crowd backed swiftly away, clearing the floor.

"Don't move, Potter," said Snape, lazily. "I'll get rid of it…"

"Allow me, Professor Snape," said Lockhart. He brandished his wand, aimed it at the snake. "_Alarte Ascendare!_"

There was a loud bang snake flew about ten feet in the air and fell back down to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight towards a Hufflepuff boy and raised itself again, fangs exposed, flattening its hood outward, ready to strike.

"Leave him alone!" Harry said.

While everyone stared, Eponine, for some reason, knew what he was saying. Soon, the snake turned towards Harry and slithered in the opposite direction towards Hermione.

_Ssai ahas ashi! _"Go away!" Eponine said to the snake.

The snake didn't listen to her at first. It raised itself, hood flattened, fangs exposed, ready to strike at Hermione. Hermione stared at the snake, frightened, glued to her spot. For a moment and soon all eyes were off Harry and onto Eponine. Even Snape, her own master, stared at her, frightened.

_Ssai ahas sieth! _"Don't you dare touch her!" Eponine said.

The snake turned towards Eponine, hissing with fangs exposed. Then, it stared at Eponine and miraculously, it obeyed her, closing its mouth and relaxing its hood.

"_Vipera Evanesca_!" said Snape, waving his wand. The snake vanished in a puff of black smoke.

"What are you two playing at?" said the Hufflepuff boy.

All eyes still stared at Eponine; Eponine felt herself, praying that the ground would split open and swallow her up. Even her own friends were staring, frightened.

"WHERE DID YOU LEARN PARSELTONGUE?" Snape bellowed, shaking Eponine angrily.

"I swear I don't know what you're talking about!" Eponine said, insistently, half-sobbing as blows were delivered to her.

"You were speaking to that snake in Parseltongue! Snake language. Now, what did you say to that snake! SPEAK!" Spit sprayed all over her.

"I told it not to attack Hermione…but I swear to you, sir, I didn't know I was speaking another language. How could I speak another language without knowing?"

"Idiot girl!" he yelled, slapping her in the face. "Do you have _any_ idea what you have done? Do you have _any_ idea how serious this is? Now, everyone in this entire school thinks that you and Potter are the Heirs of Slytherin!"

"But I'm not! I don't even know who my family is!"

"Of course you don't! But this is very serious! There have been two attacks on Muggle-borns and you and Harry are now primary suspects!"

"But, sir, I swear to every word I say, I don't know how I learned Parseltongue! You've got to believe me! I didn't even realize I was speaking another language! I swear!" Large tears fell from Eponine's eyes.

Snape only stared, frightened. For a moment there was a glimmer of belief. Perhaps she was telling the truth. Perhaps she didn't know. He stared at his miserable servant's large, grey-blue eyes that were flooded with tears, trembling at her master. But, he decided not to show that he believed her.

"GET OUT! DO WORK BEFORE I LASH YOU!" he yelled.

She ran away, sobbing. Mind waves pulsed angrily in her mind; books in people's hands went flying or people were knocked over by an invisible force that seemed to be coming from nowhere. She hid in the second floor girls' bathroom, sobbing. Soon, a knock came at the door.

"GO AWAY!" she sobbed.

"Eponine, it's us," said Hermione from outside.

They came in and they all looked concerned.

"Eponine," said Ron. "We didn't know _you_ were a Parselmouth. Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't know I was," she sobbed.

"What did you say to that snake?" asked Hermione.

"I told it to leave you alone. Just like what Harry said."

They all stared, wide eyed, especially Harry.

"You _knew_ what I was saying?" Harry exclaimed.

Eponine nodded, wiping her tears with her ragged sleeve of her dress.

"Now, the whole school's going to think you and Harry are Slytherin's great-great-great grandchildren or something," said Ron.

"We're not!" Eponine and Harry said together.

"It can't be," said Harry.

"And I don't even know my family," said Eponine.

"Well, Salazar Slytherin lived a thousand years ago," said Hermione. "For what we know, you two could be."

The next day, everyone avoided Eponine whenever she was around as if she were going to sprout fangs and attack them. Whenever she walked in the halls, everyone snubbed her, giving her dirty looks or ran in the opposite direction; some even whispered about her and pointed at her. Whenever she went to collect shoes or laundry, they just dumped their shoes or clothes in her arms without even making eye contact. Snape was so suspicious of her that he decided to keep her throughout all of his classes, sitting in her dark corner. Her friends were no help either; they couldn't offer her any helpful advice.

She sighed, depressed. As the evening came, she went up the stairs and ran into Harry coming out of the library, depressed.

"Something wrong?" asked Eponine.

"Yea," he said. "Nobody wants to talk to me. I overheard Ernie Macmillan talking about me, saying stuff about how you and I could be the Heirs of Slytherin and how that we were going to team up and attack Muggle-borns."

"I understand how you feel. Well, nobody wants to talk either," Eponine said. "Even my master is suspicious of me that he kept me in all his classes."

Harry was sympathetic.

"I mean, I don't know who my family is," said Eponine. "How would _I_ know I was the Heir of Slytherin?"

"I dunno," said Harry. "I don't even know my side of the family either."

"Well, at least we share a few things in common: both of us are Parselmouths, nobody wants to talk to us because we're Parselmouths, and neither of us knows our families."

Harry nodded. Then, the voice came again.

"_Blood…I want blood…they all must die…"_

Harry and Eponine pressed their ears against the wall, trying to find the voice. They heard movement.

"_Kill…kill…KILL! Time to kill!_"

The voice soon disappeared and the voice was gone and the movement went away. They went around the corner and they found Nearly Headless Nick floating in mid-air, his head barely hanging off his neck by a sinew with a horrified expression.

"Oh no!" Eponine gasped.

They stared at Nearly Headless Nick, examining him and then they saw Justin Finch-Fletchley lying on the floor with a horrified expression on his face, stiff as a board. Harry and Eponine kneeled to examine Justin.

"Caught in the act!" said Filch's voice behind them. "I'll have you out this time, Potter! And I'll make sure your master skins you alive for this, 'Ponine! Mark my words."

"No!" Eponine cried.

"Mr. Filch, you don't understand!" Harry said, his voice shaking.

He turned around the corner and was gone. They sighed, knowing that their doom was coming. Soon, they saw more spiders, scuttling towards the window, fighting for their lives to get out. That's when Filch and McGonagall came. McGonagall looked at Nearly Headless Nick and Justin Finch-Fletchley, her face white and eyes wide with terror. Then, she looked at Eponine and Harry.

"Professor," said Harry. "I swear we didn't…"

"This is out of my hands, you two," she said, her voice trembling.

She led the two of them towards Professor Dumbledore's office. It had a large griffin with wings spread.

"Professor Dumbledore will be waiting for you two," she said.

The two of them entered the little doorway, standing in front of the base of the griffin.

"Sherbet lemon," she said.

Obviously this was the password because the stairs began to move under their feet, leading up. Soon, it stopped at a door.

"You can go first," said Eponine.

"Ladies first," she said.

"Let's just go in together and get this over with since we both have the same problem: we're both hearing a voice, we speak Parselmouth and we're being accused of attacking Justin."

He nodded.

Dumbledore's office was a large and beautiful circular room, the walls were covered portraits of previous headmasters and headmistresses, who were snoozing in their portraits. It had a number of curious instruments, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. There was a enormous, claw foot desk, and the shelves were full of books and on one of the shelves was the Sorting Hat. The hat soon twitched and spoke.

"Bee in your bonnet, Potter?" it said.

"I was just wondering if you put me in the right house," he whispered to it.

"Yes. You were particularly difficult to place," it replied. "But I stand by what I said last year. You would've done well in Slytherin."

"You're wrong," he said.

They turned away from the hat and went towards Dumbledore's desk. There, on a perch, stood a large bird with scarlet feathers that were falling off; it looked ill. Soon, the bird burst into flames, frightening both of them and the bird fell into a pile of ashes.

"Harry?" said a voice. "'Ponine?"

It was Dumbledore, standing at the top of the stairs, looking at them both.

"Professor," said Harry, scared. "Your bird…there was nothing I could do…he just caught fire."

"Oh and about time too," said Dumbledore, who was curiously smiling. "He's been looking dreadful for days. Pity you two had to see him on a burning day." He paused and began to descend the stairs. "Fawkes is a phoenix, Harry. They burst into flames when it is time for them to die and then, they are reborn from the ashes."

Soon, a tiny bird emerged from the ashes; it had no feathers on its body but the three on its head. Dumbledore leaned in, smiling at the baby chick.

"Ah. Fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads and their tears have healing powers."

Soon, the door burst open.

"Professor Dumbledore, sir. "Wait! Listen!" said Hagrid; Eponine saw he was holding a dead rooster in his hand. He came up to Dumbledore's desk. "Professor Dumbledore, sir. It wasn't them!

"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, in a voice to calm him down.

"In fact, I'd be prepared to swear it in front of the Ministry of Magic," he said.

"Hagrid!" Dumbledore said. He held a hand up to silence Hagrid. "Relax. I do not believe either Harry or Eponine attacked anyone."

"Of course you don't!" Then, Hagrid soon calmed down, realizing what Dumbledore had said. "Oh. Uh…right…um…I'll just wait outside." He turned towards the door and left.

"You don't think it was us?" Eponine said.

"No," said Dumbledore. "I do not think it was either of you." He stared at both of them, looking over his half-moon glasses with his blue eyes. "I must ask of you is there something you two wish to tell me?" His eyes went to Harry first.

Eponine felt her stomach drop and her throat tightened. Inside, she was bursting to tell him everything: the voice and her speaking Parseltongue.

"No, sir," said Harry. "Nothing."

"And you, Eponine? Do you have anything to tell me?"

"No," said Eponine, her voice dropping an octave lower. "Nothing."

He looked disappointed, but nodded then.

"Very well, then," he said. "Off you two go."

They went towards the door and walked together. They both felt guilty lying to Dumbledore. They stopped and sat on the ledge of a window.

"I can't _believe_ we didn't tell him," said Eponine.  
"Me neither," said Harry. "Do you think we should have?"

"What do you think?"

Harry nodded. "Do you think he'll figure it out?"

"I think he knows. I'm worried, Harry. I'm worried that we'll get thrown out. If I get thrown out, I'll get sent to a poorhouse and I've heard that's just as worse: you sit in a cold, dirty room, chained to a chair, working sun up to sun down, making wands, assorting potion ingredients and assembling books by hand. The poorhouse is crowded, people sleep on the floor, they're are sick and dying there and they starve you and beat you even worse."

"I don't think Dumbledore would throw us out because of that," Harry assured her. "And I don't think Dumbledore would let you go to a poorhouse."

"I know he wouldn't. But, that's what happens to all poor and bastard children like me. And I don't want to get sent to the poorhouse. Years ago, when my parents died, the Ministry of Magic came to take me to the poorhouse, Dumbledore refused. He said that he would rather have me work in Hogwarts than have me sent away to a poorhouse. Thankfully, they agreed to let me stay and said I had to work in Hogwarts until someone claimed to be my family. Once they do that, I'll be released from domestic servitude."

"So, nobody claimed you?"

"No," she said, sadly. "Apparently when you're a bastard child, nobody wants to claim you."

"How do you know you were a bastard child?"

"Dumbledore told me that my parents never married when they had me. He assures me that my parents loved me dearly, but they couldn't take care of me. That's why they left me here. They knew they could trust Dumbledore with me and they promised to send money so I could have stuff while Dumbledore promised to write everyday to them, telling them how I was doing and such. But, then they died." She gazed at the sky, sadly. "And now, here I am. All alone in this castle."

"I know how you feel," said Harry. "I live with my horrible aunt and uncle and cousin. They make me work all the time too, wearing Dudley's old clothes and having me sleep in a tiny bedroom."

They looked at each other, smiling.

"Well, I'd better get to my dormitory before Filch finds me."

Eponine nodded and the two friends parted. Eponine felt a wave of warmth come over her; someone who _truly _understood how she felt. And it was nice to know that she had someone who shared something in common with her.


	6. Disguises and Diaries

Chapter Six

Disguises and Diaries

The holidays were here. Many of the students had left for the holidays. Since today was the day that the four of them were going to interrogate Malfoy, Eponine decided to take a bath. She didn't want to smell bad while interrogating Malfoy; she chose her victim: Pansy Parkinson. The four friends met in the second floor girls' bathroom to talk about the Polyjuice Potion. She told them that it was ready.

"Everything is set," said Hermione. "We just need a bit of who you're changing into."

"Crabbe and Goyle," said Harry.

"Also, there's enough for four of us. Also, we need to make sure that the _real_ Crabbe and Goyle can't burst in on us when we're interrogating Malfoy."

"But how?"

"I've got it all worked out. I filled these with a simple Sleeping Draft," she showed two cakes. "Simple, but powerful."

"Maybe I should help," Eponine said. "If one of us starts to change, I should be there for backup."  
"Good idea," said Hermione.

"Who would you be changing into?" asked Ron.

"Pansy Parkinson," she said. "She's staying, so I'll slip her some sleeping powder in her pumpkin juice. Also, I think it's wise that I drink the potion after you three are transformed, that way I'll be transformed longer and be able to cause a distraction."

"Good thinking, 'Ponine," said Hermione. "Once they're asleep, hide them in the broomstick cupboard and rip out their hairs." She turned to Eponine. "Got the uniforms?"

She nodded, holding a laundry sack.

"Good."

"Who's hair are you ripping out then?" asked Ron.

"I've already got mine," she showed them a tiny glass vial that contained a hair. "Millicent Bulstrode. Slytherin. I got this off of her robes." She placed the glass vial back in her pocket. "I'm going to check on the Polyjuice Potion. Meet me here once you've gotten the hairs."

They nodded.

Eponine approached Pansy Parkinson, a pug faced girl at the Slytherin table. She placed a goblet of pumpkin juice in front of her.

"What's this for?" she asked, suspiciously.

"You ordered this," Eponine said.

Pansy looked puzzled. "I did?"

"Yes."

She shrugged it off.

"I suppose you're trying to be a brown-noser, aren't you, Cinder-soot?" she said, nastily.

"Perhaps," she said.

She chugged it down and no sooner, Pansy fell asleep, landing face first in her food. Eponine wanted to laugh at this, but decided against it and slung her over her shoulder. Everyone was staring at Eponine, raising their eyebrows.

"Poor girl," she said. "She's not feeling too well. Better take her to the hospital wing."

She dragged Pansy up the stairs, her feet dragging on the floor. Ron and Harry were at the broomstick cupboard with sleeping Crabbe and Goyle.

She ripped out Pansy's hair and they looked at their sleeping victims.

"Nighty night," Eponine said, smiling.

The three of them giggled and ran up to the second floor girls' bathroom, where Hermione was waiting there for them, standing in front of the cauldron, stirring the Polyjuice Potion. They had already changed into the Slytherin uniforms that Eponine had swiped from the laundry as well as their shoes.

Hermione had four large tumblers, sitting on the sink. She scooped the Polyjuice Potion with a ladle and poured in each of the mugs. The potion looked like thick, dark mud, bubbling sluggishly.

"Did you get them?" she asked.

The three of them showed her their hairs.

"We have exactly one hour before we change back into ourselves," she said.

They took their mugs.

"Add the hairs," she instructed.

They did. The potion hissed a bit and frothed mildly. The smell from them was terrible. Eponine's smelled like rotting apples.

"Urgh!" Ron moaned. "Essence of Crabbe."

"Cheers!" said Hermione.

The four of them clinked their glasses. Eponine decided to wait until they drank theirs first and then she would since she would be able to stay in her form longer than they would. Eponine drank hers last.

Soon, Ron, Harry, and Hermione made faces.

"I think I'm going to be sick!" Ron moaned, dropping his glass.

"Me too," said Hermione.

The two of them ran to the stall. Harry and Eponine dropped their glasses.

Her insides started writhing as though she had swallowed live snakes—she doubled over, wondering if she was going to be sick—then, a burning sensation spread rapidly from her stomach to the ends of her fingers and toes—next, there was a horrible melting feeling, as the skin all over her body bubbled like hot wax—and before her eyes, her face became a pug nosed Pansy Parkinson and her hair became Pansy's blonde hair and her eyes became Pansy's.  
She blinked and touched her face. She turned towards Harry and saw that he had transformed into Goyle.

"Harry? 'Ponine? " said a voice from behind them and out stepped Crabbe. Then, he stared at the two of them. "Bloody hell."

"We still sound like ourselves," said Eponine.

"Yea. You need to sound more like Crabbe, Ron," said Harry. "You too, 'Ponine."

"Bloody hell," said Ron, sounding much more like Crabbe.

"I'm better than you all," Eponine said, sounding much more like Pansy.

"Excellent," said Harry.

"Where's Hermione?" asked Ron.

"I-I don't think I'm going," said Hermione in a high pitched voice. "You go on without me."

"Hermione, are you OK?" asked Eponine.

"Just go! You're wasting time."

"Come on," said Harry.  
"I know where the Slytherin common room is," said Eponine. "Just follow me."

They went down the marble staircase, hurrying down more stone steps into the darkness; the three of them had this feeling that it wasn't going to be as easy as they had hoped. The labyrinth passages were deserted as they walked deeper and deeper under the school.

"Excuse me," said a voice. It was Percy Weasley.

"What are…" Ron began until Harry elbowed him, to remind him that he didn't sound like Crabbe. "I mean, what are you doing down here?" he said in Crabbe's voice.

Percy eyed them suspiciously.

"I happen to be a school prefect," said Percy, looking affronted. "You, on the other hand, have no business wandering the corridors at this time of night."

They nodded.

"What's your names again?" said Percy, eyeing them suspiciously.

"I'm…" began Harry, nervously. "He's..."

"Crabbe? Goyle?" Draco Malfoy's voice drawled behind them. "Where have you two been? Pigging out in the Great Hall all this time?" He spotted Pansy Parkinson. "What are you doing with them, Pansy?" he asked suspiciously.

"Oh, they got lost," said Eponine in her best Pansy voice. "They're so thick-headed that they couldn't find the common rooms."

Malfoy laughed. Then, he turned towards Goyle and saw he was wearing glasses.

"Why are you wearing glasses?"

"Uh…" Harry stuttered. "Um…reading." He took them off.

"Reading?" Malfoy said, still suspicious. Harry nodded. "I didn't know you could read." He shrugged it off and turned towards Percy. "What are you doing down here, Weasley?" he sneered.

"Mind your attitude, Malfoy," he said, sternly.

Again, Malfoy sneered and motioned for the three of them to follow him. They hurried after Malfoy towards the Slytherin common room. He paused by a stretch of bare, damp stone wall.  
"What's the new password again?" he said to Harry.

"Um…"

"Pure-blood," Eponine interrupted, saving Harry.

"Oh, yea. Thanks, Pansy."

A stone door concealed in the wall slid open. Malfoy marched through it and the three of them followed him.

The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls. There were torches hanging off the walls. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece just to their left. There were black, leather sofas in front of the fireplace.

"Well, sit down," he said to Crabbe and Goyle. They sat down. "If you don't mind, Pansy, I'm having a private conversation with Crabbe and Goyle."

"Actually, I'd rather stay," said Eponine. Malfoy eyed her suspiciously. "I…I…I like you!"

Ron and Harry raised their eyebrows, confused as well as Malfoy.

"And…I'd love to sit next to the deliciously, handsome Draco Malfoy…and run my fingers through your hay, colored hair…" she sat next to Malfoy with a face filled with adoration.

"What?" mouthed Ron and Harry.

Malfoy looked a little uncomfortable. "Well, I suppose. If you say so, Pansy. But, don't touch my hair."

"Very well."

Malfoy put his arm around Pansy; Eponine tried to pretend that she was enjoying when in reality her insides were squirming uncomfortably. She plastered a fake smile on her face.

"You'd never know the Weasley's were pure-bloods, they way they behave," said Malfoy. "They're an embarrassment to the wizarding world. All of them."

Ron—or rather Crabbe—tightened his knuckles and his face contorted with fury. Eponine—rather Pansy's—eyes widened as a way to say 'don't!'

"What's up with you, Crabbe?" snapped Malfoy.

Harry elbowed him. "Stomachache," Ron grunted.

"You know, I'm surprised the _Daily Prophet_ hasn't done a report on all these attacks. I suppose Dumbledore's trying to hush it all up. Father always said that Dumbledore was the worse thing that ever happened to this place."

"You're wrong!" Harry—rather Goyle—yelled.

Eponine and Ron stared at them wide eyed as if to say, 'what are you doing?' Malfoy removed his arm from Pansy's—rather Eponine's—shoulder and she relaxed a bit and stood up, glaring at Harry as if he dared to speak.

"What? You think there's someone here that's _worse_ than Dumbledore?" He eyed Harry—rather Goyle—suspiciously. Ron—rather Crabbe—shook his head. "Well? Do you?"

"Harry Potter?" he said.

Malfoy sniggered, seeming satisfied with the answer.

"Good one, Goyle," he said. "You're absolutely right." The three of them sighed with relief. "Saint Potter. And people actually think that _he's_ the Heir of Slytherin, along with that Cinder-soot servant Eponine. I'm surprised _everyone_ thinks that that little bastard country girl would be the Heir of Slytherin."

Pansy's face contorted with rage for a second, but Ron looked at her to say 'don't you dare!'

"But then you must have some idea who's behind it all," said Harry.

"You know I don't, Goyle. I told you yesterday," Malfoy snapped. "How many times do I have to tell you?" Soon, he approached a desk and picked up a green box with a ribbon wrapped around it. Malfoy shook it and turned to Harry. "Is this yours?"

Harry shook his head.

In horror, they watched as Malfoy stuffed the box in his pocket. Then, he turned back to them.

"But my father did say this: it's been 50 years since the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. He wouldn't tell me who opened it. Only that they were expelled. The last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a Mudblood died. So, it's only a matter of time before one of them is killed this time. As for me, I hope it's Granger."

Ron leapt up from his seat, his face twisted with rage. Harry and Eponine stopped him.

"What's the matter with you two?! You're acting very…odd."

"It's his stomachache," said Harry.  
"Calm down," whispered Eponine.

Soon, Ron and Eponine stared at Harry in horror.

"S..scar," he whispered.

Harry touched his head and felt a lightning bolt scar beginning to form. Then, he said to Ron, seeing a mass of red hair forming.

"Hair," he whispered.

Eponine soon ran to Malfoy, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him full blown on the lips; Malfoy stared wide-eyed with shock and surprise. Harry and Ron didn't have time to say anything and they ran towards the door; they were both thankful for her diversion. Malfoy shoved her away.

"What the bloody hell was that for?" he demanded, wiping his lips in disgust.

"Uh…I love you, Malfoy," Eponine said. "I've been trying to get my feelings out to tell you this for a long time and I just had to show you how I felt."

"Urgh!" he said, spitting. "Pansy, don't _ever_ do that again! Next time you want to kiss me, just warn me ahead of time."

"Right," she said. "Sorry. I'm a little embarrassed myself." She turned towards the door. "Excuse me. I'm going to go…do girly stuff…"

Ron and Harry were just around the corner when Eponine could feel herself change back into herself. She was wiping her lips and spitting with a disgusted look on her face.

"What the bloody hell was that?" asked Ron, shocked.

"Hey, at least you got away," Eponine retorted. "Let's just get to Hermione and tell her what we know." She kept spitting. "Urgh! I'm going to have to brush my teeth a hundred times to get rid of Malfoy's spit in my mouth. Urgh! God! I can _still_ taste it."

"So, how was it?" Harry asked, sniggering.

"Shut up!" she yelled. "Horrible…like kissing my cousin." She spit some more.

"Malfoy and Eponine sitting in a tree, Kay-Eye-Ess-Ess-Eye-En-Gee…" Ron sang, teasingly. Eponine punched him in the ribs.

They reached the second floor girls' bathroom.

"Hermione, come out," said Harry. "We've got loads to tell you."

"Go away!" Hermione squeaked.

Soon, Moaning Myrtle glided suddenly through the stall door. Eponine had never seen her looking so happy.  
"Ooooh, wait till you see," she said. "It's _awful_." She giggled as she floated behind Ron, Harry and Eponine.

"Hermione, are you OK?"asked Harry, pushing the stall door open.

Ron and Eponine's faces wore expressions of surprise while Harry squinted and then took out his glasses so he could see.

"Do you remember me telling you that the Polyjuice Potion was only for human transformations?" said Hermione. "It was cat hair I plucked off Millicent Bulstrode's robes."

Hermione turned towards them; her face was covered with black and brown fur with her bushy hair still on her head. Her eyes had turned yellow and there were long, pointed cat hears poking through her hair and a thick bushy tail wagged behind her. Her eyes were wet from crying.

"Look at my face," she said, sadly.

Moaning Myrtle was guffawing hysterically while Ron and Eponine giggled.  
"Look at your tail!" Ron said.

The next night, Eponine saw Malfoy talking to Pansy Parkinson in the hall. In his hand he had a bouquet of paper flowers, holding them. Pansy Parkinson looked puzzled.

"Last night," said Malfoy. "I thought about what you said. I had _no_ idea how strong your feelings were for me and I wanted to say that I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings about you being a horrible kisser."

"What?" Pansy said, puzzled.

"That's not all," said Malfoy, handing her the flowers. "I want to say is that I have the same feelings for you, Pansy. We have so much in common: you're pure-blooded and rich, just like me. And here's how I feel about you."

He grabbed Pansy and mashed his lips on hers. She looked horrified and shoved him away, then slapped him across the face angrily.

"PIG!" she said, storming away.

Malfoy rubbed his face and a red handprint began to form. His paper bouquet was scattered all over the floor. Eponine sniggered; Malfoy stared at her angrily.

"What are you laughing at, Cinder-soot?" he said, picking up his fallen bouquet and chased after Pansy. "Buttercup, wait!"

She saw Ron and Harry heading up the stairs.

"So, how's Hermione?" she asked.

"She should be out of the hospital in a few days," said Harry. "once she stops coughing up fur balls."  
Ron and Eponine laughed.

"You won't believe what I saw earlier today," she said. She told them about what she had seen with Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. They laughed.

"I guess Malfoy's fallen for Pansy, then," said Harry.

"Thanks to your kiss," said Ron.

"Shut up!" Eponine yelled. "It doesn't count as a kiss if you don't have feelings for the person!" She stopped slightly in her tracks when she saw that the second floor was flooded with water.

"What's this?" said Ron.

"I think Moaning Myrtle's flooded the bathroom…again," Eponine sighed, exasperated that she had to clean this floor up again.

The three of them ran towards the bathroom; all the sinks were turned on, except for one. There were mournful sobs coming from the toilets. Moaning Myrtle's sobs were louder and harder than before. She sat up on the window, her eyes soaked with tears.

"Come to throw something else at me?" she asked, miserably.

"Why would we throw something at you?" asked Harry.

"Don't ask me," Myrtle said, standing up from the window. "Here I am, minding my own business, and someone thinks it's funny to throw a book at me."

"But it can't hurt you if someone throws something at you," said Ron. "I mean, it'll just go right through you."

Eponine elbowed Ron in the ribs as a way to say 'shut up!' He soon realized he said the wrong thing. Myrtle puffed herself up and zoomed towards Ron, filled with rage.

"Oh, SURE!" she shrieked. "Let's all throw books at Myrtle because she can't feel it! Ten points if you get it through her stomach!" She punched Ron in the stomach; it felt extremely cold. "Fifty points if it goes through her HEAD!" She punched him in the head.

"But, who threw it at you, anyway?" asked Harry.

Myrtle's expression changed like a coy, lovesick schoolgirl.

"I don't know," she said. "I was sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death…" She sighed. "Then, it fell through the top of my head. Mm-hmm." She moaned and sobbed some more and floated away. The three of them saw a small, thin book lying on the floor. It had a shabby black cover and it was wet as everything else in the bathroom.

"I don't like this," Eponine said. "I don't like this at all."

"What?" said Harry. "It's just a book."

"Eponine's right, Harry," said Ron. "It could be dangerous."

"Dangerous? How could it be dangerous?"

"You'd be surprised," said Ron, who was looking apprehensively at the book. "Some of the books at the Ministry's confiscated—Dad told me—there was one that burned your eyes out. And everyone who read _Sonnets of a Sorcerer_ spoke in limericks for the rest of their lives…"

"Alright, I've got the point."

"Maybe I should look at it," said Eponine. "That way neither of you gets hurt."

Eponine sat in her tiny attic, holding the book, staring at it. On the first page, the word DIARY and the faded year on the cover told her that it was fifty years old. She flipped through the pages. It was completely blank. There wasn't the faintest trace of writing on any of the pages, not even _Auntie Mabel's birthday_ or _dentist, half-past three_. She looked at the back and saw in faded gold letters: Tom Marvolo Riddle.

She picked up a quill that sat in an inkwell and dropped a blot of ink on one of the pages. It shone brightly for a second and then, as though it was being sucked into the page, vanished. Eponine, excited, loaded up the quill a second time and wrote:

"My name is Eponine Black."

The words shone momentarily on the page and they, too, sank without a trace. Then, something happened. Oozing out of the page, in the same ink, came the words that she didn't write.

"_Hello, Eponine Black. My name is Tom Riddle. Say, I recognize your last name! Are you related to anyone named Bellatrix Black?_"

Eponine stared as they faded into the page. Tom Riddle _knew_ someone named Bellatrix Black? But who was that?

"Not that I'm aware of," she wrote. "I don't even know who my family is. Sorry."

Her words faded and then more words appeared.

"_I'm sorry to hear that you don't remember who your family is. I understand how you feel. Are your parents dead?_"

She felt happy that someone who understood how she felt. It was nice to see that.

"Yes."

"_Mine are too. My mother died when I was born. My father left her when she was pregnant. My mother left me in an orphanage after I was born. She couldn't take care of me. What about you, Eponine? Tell me about yourself._"

Eponine felt so happy that someone felt for her.

"Well, my parents weren't married when they had me, so I'm stigmatized as a bastard child. They left me here at Hogwarts so that Dumbledore could take care of me since they couldn't. I suppose they trusted him and they promised to send him money so that I could have things. But, they died later. The Ministry of Magic almost had me sent to the poorhouse, but Dumbledore chose to keep me here to work as a servant."

"_I envy you, Eponine. I would've rather stayed at Hogwarts than to return to an orphanage I went to every summer._"

Eponine waited.

"_I don't mean to pry, 'Ponine, but is your mother's name Jane?_"

Eponine almost jumped out of her skin. She didn't know whether or not she trusted this Tom Riddle now. How did he know who her mother was?

"Why do you ask?"

"_I met your mother once, just before I passed away. Sweet Jane. That's what everyone called her._"

How did Tom Riddle know all of this? Frightened, she slammed the book shut. The name 'sweet Jane' echoed in her head…

(I love you, sweet jane sweet jane sweet jane)

She decided to show Harry this book. Quietly and quickly, avoiding all the squeaky steps of her attic, she sprinted towards the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Eponine!" said Harry who was sitting at a desk, doing his homework. "What are you doing here?"

"You have to see this!" she said, scared.

She threw the diary in front of Harry. He flipped through the pages, staring confused.

"But, there's nothing written in here," he said.

"Write something! Watch what happens!"

Harry picked up his quill and wrote:  
"My name is Harry Potter."

The ink disappeared into the pages and soon writing appeared that wasn't his own.

"_Hello, Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle._"

He stared, shocked at this. He looked at Eponine with wide eyes.

"See? I told you!"

"What did it say to you?"

"He said he knew my mother Jane before he died."

"Strange," said Harry. "Do you think he knows about the Chamber of Secrets?"

"Ask it."

He wrote:

"Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?"

His ink faded and soon Riddle's handwriting appeared in one simple word: "_Yes._"

"Keep writing," Eponine encouraged.

"Can you tell me?" Harry wrote.  
"_No._"

Harry threw his quill down, upset. "Well, now we'll _never_ know about the Chamber of Secrets."

"No!" said Eponine. "Look."

The words appeared on the page. "_But I can show you._" They faded. More words came up. "_Let me take you back fifty years ago._"

Soon, the pages of the diary began to blow as though caught in a high wind, stopping at one particular page. The date 13th June appeared in the upper right hand corner of the page. Soon, there was a glow of gold light and the two of them felt their bodies leave the Common Room, entering the page into a whirl of color and shadow.

They felt their feet hit solid ground. Everything around them was black and white. They were in a hall that was the Great Entrance Hall. Eponine recognized the boar at the foot of the stairs. Soon, they saw a boy about sixteen standing at the top of the first story of stairs. He had a silver prefect's badge glinting on his robes. He was much taller than Harry, but he, too, had jet-black hair. He was staring up the stairs.

"Excuse me," said Harry. "Could you tell me what's going on?"

The boy just kept staring up the stairs as though he hadn't heard him.

"Are you Tom Riddle?" He still didn't answer him. "Hello. Can you hear me?"

"I don't think he can," Eponine said. "I think we're in the past. Probably in Tom Riddle's memory; we're completely invisible to the people in this memory."

They went in the direction of the boy's eyes and saw all the staff of Hogwarts at the top of the stairs and four wizards coming down, carrying a stretcher. They were all dressed in black, as so it appeared. The wizards carrying the stretcher passed by Harry and Hermione and they saw that a hand, probably a girl's, hanging out limply from beneath the white cloth that covered her. The boy watched the wizards carry the body out.

"Riddle!" said a voice that was familiar. They turned in the direction and saw it was a much younger Dumbledore. His beard was not white and not as long.

"Professor Dumbledore," said Riddle.

He walked up the stairs towards Dumbledore, who was looking very grave. "It is not wise to be wandering around this late hour, Tom," he said.

"Yes, professor, I suppose…" Tom said. "I had to see if the rumors themselves were true."

"I'm afraid they are, Tom. They are true."

"About the school as well? I don't have a home to go to. They wouldn't really close Hogwarts, would they, professor?"

"I understand, Tom, but I'm afraid Headmaster Dippet may have no choice."

"Sir, if it all stopped, if the person responsible was caught…"

Dumbledore looked at Tom, suspiciously. "Is there something you wish to tell me?"  
"No, sir," said Tom. "Nothing."  
Harry and Eponine were sure it was the same 'no' that they both had given Dumbledore. And they were certain it was the same look Dumbledore had given them when he heard their replies.  
"Very well, then. Off you go."

"Good night, sir."

Riddle walked up the stairs. Harry and Eponine followed him. He went down a series of steps that lead to the dungeons where Snape taught Potions. Then, Riddle paused to take out his wand and stopped at a door. A hoarse whisper came from inside.

"Let's get you out of here."

There was something familiar about that voice.

"Evening, Hagrid," said Riddle, sharply, brandishing his wand.

The boy slammed the lid of a giant wooden box shut and turned in Riddle's direction, startled.

"I'm going to have to turn you in, Hagrid. I don't think you meant it to kill anyone."

"You can't!" Hagrid said, standing in front of the box, protecting it. "You don't understand."

"The dead girl's parents will be here tomorrow. The least Hogwarts can do is make sure the thing that killed their daughter is slaughtered."

"It wasn't him! Aragog never killed no one. Never." His voice was insistant.

"Monsters don't make good pets, Hagrid. Now, stand aside."

"No!" Hagrid remained glued to his spot, protecting the box.

"Stand aside, Hagrid."

"No!"

"_Cistem aperio!_" Riddle's spell lit the corridor with a sudden flaming light. The lid of the box exploded open and soon something came out that frightened Harry and Eponine…a vast, low-slung, hairy body and a tangle of black legs; a gleam of many eyes and a pair of razor sharp pincers began to run towards the door, scuttling away, tearing up the corridor and out of sight.

"_Arania exumai!_" Riddle said, but he missed.

"Aragog!" Hagrid's voice called as he watched his pet run away. "Aragog!"

He was about to run after his pet when Riddle stopped him by pointing his wand at Hagrid's throat.

"I can't let you go," said Riddle. "They'll have your wand for this, Hagrid. You'll be expelled."

Defeated, Hagrid dropped his hand and hung his head sadly as though he knew that nobody would believe him.

"Hagrid!" said Harry.

The two of them felt themselves being sucked away from the memory. The two of them screamed Hagrid's name as they were sucked away…

The scene whirled further and further away and they felt themselves falling with a crash. They landed back where they were originally.

"Whoa!" they said.

They stared at the diary in silence and shock, unable to speak about what they had just seen. Words had failed them.


	7. Follow the Spiders

Chapter Seven

Follow the Spiders

"It was Hagrid!" said Harry. "Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago."

"It can't be Hagrid," said Hermione. "It just can't be."

"I hate to say this," said Eponine. "But I agree with Hermione on this, Harry. Hagrid is our friend. I mean, I know he likes monsters. But, I don't think he would use them to kill somebody."

"How could you say that, Eponine after what we just saw?" Harry said.

"I just know in my gut that he didn't do this," Eponine said.

"Yea. We don't even know this Tom Riddle. He sounds like a dirty, rotten snitch to me," said Ron.

"But the monster had killed somebody," said Harry. "What would've any of us done?"

"Why don't we just go and ask him?" suggested Eponine.

"Yea. He is our friend," said Hermione.

"That would be a cheerful visit," said Ron. "'Hello, Hagrid. Tell us, did you set anything mad and hairy loose in the castle lately?'"

"Mad and hairy?" said a voice behind them, scaring them all. "You wouldn't be talking about me, now, would you?"

"NO!" they all said together.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence between the four friends and Hagrid. He was looking at them suspiciously.

"Um…what's that you got there, Hagrid?" Eponine said, trying to be interested.

"Oh, uh…it's Flesh Eating Slug Repellent," he said, showing them. "For the Mandrakes, you know. According to Professor Sprout, they've still got a bit of growing up to do. Once their acne's cleared up, we'll be able to chop them up and stew them and then we'll get the people down at the hospital un-Petrified." He paused. "In the meantime, you four, had best be looking after yourselves. Alright?"

Later, Eponine wanted to see Tom's diary again. She wanted to know about her family, especially her mother. She snuck into the Gryffindor Common Room and into the boys' dormitory. She picked the lock on Harry's trunk, using her powers. It was easy. She found it amongst some of his books. She sat at the desk and dipped the quill into ink and was about to write; then it hit her like a thunderbolt. She wasn't sure if she trusted this Tom Riddle, plus she felt guilty for breaking into Harry's private trunk and rummaging through his possessions. She slammed the book shut and put it back exactly where Harry had left it. Ginny Weasley shoved passed Eponine rudely. Eponine rolled her eyes and said "Excuse me."

Soon, she saw her friends running up the stairs, frightened along with Neville Longbottom. Eponine made sure Snape wasn't walking around, making sure she was doing work. She carefully kept a safe distance behind her friends to make it look like she wasn't following them.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Something happened," said Neville. "Something happened to Harry's stuff."

She followed them to the Gryffindor Common Room. Once to the boys' dormitory, they stood, staring at the overturned contents of Harry's trunk in front of his bed. His pillow had been ripped to shreds, his mattress was overturned and feathers were everywhere. Books and papers were scattered all over the floor. The bedclothes and robes had been pulled off his four poster bed.

"What happened, Harry?" Eponine asked.

"Tom Riddle's diary is gone," he said in an undertone.

"What? But…it had to be a Gryffindor because nobody else knows the password."

"Exactly," said Harry.

"I'll go clean up the mess," Eponine said. "I'll repair your pillow and fix your mattress."

"Thanks."

The next day, Eponine had heard that the Quidditch match had been cancelled. Harry and Ron found Eponine in the hallway, sweeping. They were flanked by Professor McGonagall.

"Miss Eponine," said McGonagall. "I need you to come with me, please. There's something you three have to see."

Eponine didn't dare ask why, but from her tone of voice, she sounded concerned. They weren't going to anyone's office this time. They were heading to the infirmary.

"I warn you," said McGonagall in a surprisingly gentle voice as they approached the infirmary. "This could be a wee bit of a shock."

Eponine's insides did a horrible somersault as she saw a girl's shoe on the bed. Madam Pomfrey was bending over the bed.

"_Hermione!_" Ron whispered, horrified.

Hermione lay utterly still, her eyes open and glassy.

"She was found near the library," said Professor McGonagall. "Along with this." She held up a small, silver mirror. "Does this mean anything to you?" she asked.

The three of them shook their heads no, still staring at Hermione.  
"Eponine, take Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley back to the Gryffindor tower. Then, come back here at once. I need to speak to you about the new rules."

She nodded. Once she returned, McGonagall escorted her to her office. She had a parchment in front of her.

"Eponine," she said. "I understand that you are a servant of this school. However, because of recent events, these new rules will be put into effect immediately: you will return to your attic by six o'clock every evening. Also, you are to remain in the classroom with your master until the end of the day and be escorted to your attic. No exceptions."

Eponine sighed. She hated being cooped up in Snape's classroom all day.  
"I guess I could live with that," she said. "How long will these rules be in effect, Headmistress?"

"Until the culprit behind these attacks is caught…otherwise, it is likely the school will be closed."

"But, but…Headmistress…what about me? I'll end up going to the poorhouse. I…I don't want to go there."

"I'm sorry, Eponine. I wish I could help you. If the school is closed, I'm afraid we won't have a choice but to send you there. And I'm sorry, but I don't want to see you end up in the poorhouse either."

Eponine sighed, sadly. She dreaded the very thought of going to the poorhouse: chained to a bench all day, working all around the clock, lying on the floor at night, sick and dying along with all the hundreds of poor, bastard children. Now, she understood why Tom Riddle turned in Hagrid: it was because he was he was going to be sent to the Muggle orphanage if the school closed. And she knew exactly how he felt.

She went to her attic, escorted by McGonagall. She lied on her mattress on the floor, miserable and hoped that dreaming away would help. She dreamed about being in the poorhouse along with thousands of poor, bastard children. Their faces were filled with misery, dirty, sick; coughs filled the dirt filled air. Eponine sat chained to a bench, picking through potion ingredients. Snape was standing amongst the wardens, smiling at her, satisfied to see where she ended up. Then, she saw the Slytherin students, standing around Snape, laughing at her and pelting her with puffer-fish eyes.

That's when a knock came at the door, disturbing her dream. She sat up.

"Who's there?" she said in a high, terrified voice.

"It's us," said Harry's voice, whispering.

Eponine opened the door and saw nobody there.

"Where are you?" she whispered, hoping that Snape wasn't downstairs. They opened the cloak and revealed themselves. "What are you doing here? Get in here!"

She pulled them inside, looked out her door to make sure there was no sign of Snape downstairs and slammed the door.

"Do you have _any_ idea how much trouble I would be in if my master found you here?" she said.

"Eponine," said Harry. "We need your help. You saw what happened in Tom Riddle's diary. We've got to talk to Hagrid. I can't believe it's him and you believe so too. If he set the monster loose last time, he'll know how to get inside the Chamber of Secrets. That's a start. Let's go."

Eponine got under the cloak and they quietly went down the stairs from Eponine's attic, carefully avoiding the squeaky steps. Thankfully, Snape was not there.

"Where is that master of yours, anyway?" whispered Ron.

"Standing guard for the night," Eponine said.

The three of them snuck outside to visit Hagrid. The journey through the dark and deserted castle corridors wasn't enjoyable. It seemed like a long journey towards the oak doors of the Entrance Hall. It had never been so crowded after sunset. Teachers, prefects, and ghosts were marching the corridors in pairs, staring around for any unusual activity. The Invisibility Cloak that Harry had inherited from his father still didn't stop them from making any noise and there was a tense moment where Ron stubbed his toe only yards away from the spot where Snape stood guard. Eponine used her powers to make some light dust fly towards Snape, which made him sneeze at almost the exact moment Ron swore. Ron was about to thank her when Eponine shook her head as to say 'tell me later'. It was a relief that they reached the oak front doors and eased them open.

It was a clear, starry night. They hurried towards the lit windows of Hagrid's hut and knocked. They heard Hagrid stir inside, picking up something heavy.

"Who's there?" he said, nervously.

He opened the door and pointed his crossbow straight at them, armed and ready to fire.

"Hello?" He said in the blackness. "Hello?"

Together, they threw the cloak off, revealing themselves. He sighed with relief and lowered his weapon.

"What's that for?" Eponine said, pointing to the crossbow.

"Oh, nothing. I was expecting…" Hagrid muttered. "Doesn't matter. Come in. Come in. I just made a pot of tea."

The three of them ran inside, closing the door behind them. He hardly seemed to know what he was doing. Hagrid began to pour the tea, which he held in large, trembling hands and poured it so fast that it overflowed.

"Hagrid, are you OK?" asked Eponine.

"I'm fine. I'm alright." He was glancing nervously at the windows.

"Did you hear about Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Yea. I heard about that alright." There was a slight break in his voice.

"Look, we have to ask you something: do you know who's opened the Chamber of Secrets?"

Hagrid stared nervously back at them.

"What you have to understand about that is…" he began. That's when a loud knock came at the door. Fang, his boarhound began to bark. "Quick, under the cloak! Don't say a word. Be quiet, all of you."

They threw the Invisibility Cloak over themselves and retreated to a corner. Hagrid checked that they were hidden, seized his crossbow and flung the door open once more.

"Professor Dumbledore, sir," he said.

"Good evening, Hagrid. I wonder, could we…"

"Of course. Come in. Come in."

Dumbledore entered, looking deadly serious and was followed by a second, very odd-looking man. He had rumpled grey hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and an anxious expression, and was wearing a brown overcoat and a green scarf.

"That's Dad's boss!" Ron breathed. "Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic."

"I know him. He was going to take me away to the poorhouse when my parents died," Eponine replied.

"Bad business, Hagrid," said Fudge in rather clipped tones. "Very bad business. Had to come. Three attacks on Muggle-borns. Things've gone far enough. Ministry's got to act."

"But I never…" Hagrid said. "You know I never, professor." Dumbledore held his hand up to silence him.

"I want it understood, Cornelius," said Dumbledore. "That Hagrid has my full confidence."

"Albus, look," said Fudge, uncomfortably. "Hagrid's record is against him. I've got to take him."

"Take me?" said Hagrid, who was trembling. "Take me where? Not Azkaban prison!"

"I'm afraid we have no choice, Hagrid."

Soon, the door opened behind them. The hideous voice of Lucius Malfoy drawled from outside the hut.

"Already here, Fudge," he said, approvingly. "Good."

He strode into Hagrid's hut, swathed in a long black traveling cloak, with a cold and satisfied smile. Fang started to growl.

"What are you doing here?" Hagrid said, furiously. "Get outta my house!"  
"Believe me, I take absolutely no pleasure being inside your…" He wrinkled his nose in disgust. "You call this a house?" He paused and turned toward Dumbledore and Fudge. "No. I simply called up the school and was told the headmaster was here."  
"And what exactly is it you want from me?" said Dumbledore, speaking politely, but Eponine could see fire blazing in his blue eyes.

"The other governors and I have decided it's time for you to step aside." He held up a long roll of parchment, lazily. "This is an Order of Suspension. You'll find all twelve signatures on it." Fudge was about to take it first, but Dumbledore held up a hand to stop him. He accepted it and opened it. "I'm afraid we feel you've rather lost your touch. Well, with all these attacks, there'll be no Muggle-borns left at Hogwarts. I can only imagine what an awful loss that would be at the school."

"You can't take Professor Dumbledore away," said Hagrid. "Take him away and the Muggle-borns won't stand a chance. You mark my words, there'll be killings next!"

"You think so?" Lucius said.

"Calm yourself, Hagrid," said Dumbledore. "If the governors desire my removal, I shall of course step aside." He had not taken his blue eyes off of Lucius Malfoy's cold grey ones. "However," he said, slowly and clearly so that none would miss a word, "you will find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

For a second, Eponine was sure Dumbledore's eyes flickered towards the corner where she, Harry and Ron stood hidden. Lucius turned towards where he was looking and raised his eyebrows.

"Admirable sentiments," said Malfoy. "Shall we?" He gestured towards the door. Dumbledore was still looking at the three of them, smiling.

"Fudge," said Lucius.

"Come, Hagrid," said Fudge. "Well?"

Hagrid clearned his throat, took a deep breath and said carefully, "If, uh…if anyone was looking for some stuff, all they'd have to do would be to follow the spiders. Yep. That'd lead them right. That's all I have to say." He paused as he headed towards the door. "Oh, and someone will have to feed Fang while I'm away."

Fang growled at Fudge and Fudge backed away. "Good boy."

Soon, Fudge closed the door and they were gone. Together, the three of them threw the Invisibility Cloak off.

"Hagrid's right," said Ron. "With Dumbledore gone, there'll be an attack a day."

"Look," Eponine said, pointing to spiders that were scuttling towards the open window.

"Come on," said Harry. "Come on, Fang." He grabbed a lantern and they went outside, following the black dots of spiders toward the Dark Forest. "Let's go."

"What?" said Ron, fearfully.

"You heard what Hagrid said," said Eponine. "'Follow the spiders'."

"They're heading to the Dark Forest," said Ron, his voice cracking. They decided to ignore him and follow the spiders. "Why spiders? Why couldn't it be 'follow the butterflies'?"

They entered the forest, following the steady trickle of spiders moving along the path, not speaking. They walked behind them, careful not to step on any, listening hard for noises other than the breaking of twigs and rustling leaves. Then, when the trees became thicker than ever so that the stars overhead were no longer invisible, the lantern light shone alone in the sea of dark, they saw the spiders leave the path. They remembered Hagrid advising them not to leave the forest path the last time they were there, but Hagrid was miles away now, probably sitting in a cell in Azkaban, and he had also said to follow the spiders.

Soon, they followed the darting shadows of spiders into the trees. They came across what looked like a hole beneath a large tree's roots.

"I don't like this," whined Ron. "I don't like this at all."

"Shush!" Harry and Eponine said together.

"Can we go back now?"

"Come on," said Harry, bravely.

They entered the hole and followed the mass of spiders under the ground. Soon, they came to a hollow with trees that were larger than the ones they had seen, covered in webs. Eponine looked around and could've sworn she saw some hairy legs in the upper levels of the trees as though something was watching them.

Soon, there was a creak coming from a small hill where a low hanging tree root hung.

"Who is it?" said a deep voice.

Ron whimpered.  
"Don't panic," whispered Harry.

"Hagrid?" said the voice. "Is that you?"

"We're friends of Hagrid's," said Harry with all the bravery in every bone in his body.

More creaking and soon large, hairy legs appeared from behind the hill, walking slowly towards them. It was a spider the size of a small elephant and had eight black eyes, there was some grey hairs on the black of his body and legs.

"And you, you're Aragog, aren't you?" squeaked Eponine.

"Yes. Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before," he said slowly.

"He's in trouble," said Harry, breathing very fast. "Up at the school, there have been attacks. They think it's Hagrid. They think he opened the Chamber of Secrets. Like before."

"That's a lie," said Aragog, fiercely. "Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets."

"Then, you're not the monster?" Eponine said.

"No. The monster was born in the castle. I came to Hagrid from a distant land in the pocket of a traveler."

Ron was looking around, frightened. "Harry," he said, tugging on his shirt, but Harry told him to shush.

"So, if you're not the monster," said Harry. "Then, what did kill that girl 50 years ago?"

"We do not speak of it!" he replied fiercely. There was a tone of terror in Aragog's voice. "It is an ancient creature that we spiders fear above all others."  
"But, have you seen it?"

Aragog laughed slightly. "I never saw any part of the castle but the box in which Hagrid kept me. The girl was discovered in a bathroom. When I was accused, Hagrid brought me here."

"Harry!" Ron whimpered.

"What?" he said, irritated by Ron's whiny behavior.

He pointed up, whimpering. The three of them looked up and saw spiders the size of carthorses, dangling from silk, descending down upon them, their hairy legs rustling. They began to press closer on all sides. They began to back slowly towards the hole, but the spiders continued to inch slowly towards Harry, Ron, and Eponine.

"Um…thank you," said Harry, his voice trembling. "We'll just go."

"Go?" said Aragog slowly. "I think not…" He paused. "My sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid on my command, but I cannot deny them fresh meat, when it wanders so willingly in our midst. Goodbye, friend of Hagrid."

"Can we panic now?" Ron said, his voice cracking.

Feet away, towering above them was a solid wall of spiders, clicking, their many eyes gleaming in their ugly heads. Two advanced towards Harry, but he swung the lantern at it, sending it flying. Soon, thousands of spiders advanced towards the, staring hungrily at the fresh meat. Ron and Harry took out their wands.

"Know any spells?" asked Ron.

"One, but it's not powerful enough for them all."

"Where's Hermione when you need her?"

Eponine didn't say anything. Waves of energy were pulsing in her head and there was a powerful pulse, sending the spiders flying several feet back in an endless tangle of hairy legs and all. Soon, there was blaze of light that flamed through the hollow. It was Mr. Weasley's enchanted car. It thundered down the slope, headlights glaring and it screeched to a halt in front of the three of them and the doors flew open.

"Let's go!" Harry said, running towards the car.

They ran to the open doors. Spiders advanced quickly towards them.

"_Arania exumai!_" Harry shouted, pointing his wand and a spider flew back several feet in a crumpled up ball.

Fang seized Fang by the collar and threw him in the car who was yelping; they slammed the doors; spiders jumped on the car, staring at them with eight black eyes. The car reversed itself, the engine roaring, speeding up the slope and out of the hollow, hitting more spiders. Soon, they were crashing through the forest. They stopped at a clearing, not far from the spiders' hollow.

They sighed with relief once they were out.

"Glad we're out of there," said Ron.

They nodded, hearts pounded. Soon, a spider leapt out from nowhere, scaring the living daylights out of them, wrapping its pincers around Ron's neck. Harry took out his wand and shouted the spell '_Arania exumai!_' It send the spider flying even further back then the first one.

"Thanks for that," said Ron, breathing hard.

"Don't mention it," said Harry, putting his wand away.

The three of them turned to see more spiders in a line, ready to attack on the horizon.

"Get us out of here!" Eponine said. "NOW!"

Ron reversed the car and turned it around, driving forward. The spiders were still running towards them from behind. Soon, they were surrounded by spiders.

"Get us in the air!" Harry yelled.  
"OK!" Ron said, panicking. He shifted the car into gears. "Oh no! The flying gears jammed!"

They crashed into spiders, their eyes glowing in the headlights. Harry took control of the shifter with Ron and soon they were flying in the air. They crashed to the ground in front of Hagrid's hut. Fang flung himself out once Harry opened the door.

"Follow the spiders!" Ron said, weakly, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "Follow the spiders. If Hagrid ever gets out of Azkaban, I'll kill him."

The car soon started up and zoomed back into the forest and disappeared from view.

"I mean, what was the point sending us in there?" said Ron. "What have we found out?"

"We know one thing," Harry said. "Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets. He was innocent."

"But if Hagrid didn't open the Chamber of Secrets," said Eponine. "Then, who did?"

"I don't know," Harry said in an undertone.


	8. The Chamber of Secrets

Chapter Eight

The Chamber of Secrets

Exam days were around the corner. Everyone was in their dormitories, studying away. Snape kept Eponine cooped up in class; she sat in her dark little corner, polishing shoes. Since the new rules have been installed, Eponine had been miserable. To ensure that she didn't give hints, he locked her in the supply closet.

Eponine desperately wanted to visit Hermione in the hospital. She missed her friends and being able to roam about the corridors whenever she pleased. The only benefit was that Snape would always be out late at night, standing guard in the corridors. Once it drew near six o'clock, he escorted her back to her attic and to ensure she didn't escape, he locked her inside her room. Eponine just smirked. Unlocking doors with her mind was easy. She concentrated, picturing all the mechanical gears in her head and just pushing them to unlock the door. She waited until the coast was clear and decided to go to the hospital wing to see Hermione. She found Ron and Harry sitting beside her bed.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," they replied.

"You should be getting back to your dormitories," said Eponine.

"We know," said Ron. "We just wanted to see Hermione before we went back."

Eponine noticed that Harry was looking at something in Hermione's right hand. He opened the paper.

"What's that?" Eponine asked.

"You guys," said Harry. "This is why Hermione was in the library the day she was attacked. Come on." He gestured towards the halls.

Together, they walked through the halls, listening to Harry read the piece of crumpled paper.

_Of the many fearsome beasts that roam our land, none is more deadly than the basilisk. Capable for living hundreds of years, instant death await any who meets this giant serpent's eye. Spiders flee before it._

"You guys," said Harry. "This is it. The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basilisk. That's why Eponine and I can hear it speak. It's a snake."

"But if it kills by looking at people in the eye," said Ron. "Why is it that no one is dead?"

He did have a point. Why was no one was dead, but Petrified? Harry looked at the window that was in front of them.

"Because no one _did_ look at it in the eye," he replied. "Not directly at least."

"Colin saw it through his camera," Harry said, remembering all the events. "Justin…Justin _must've_ seen it through Nearly-Headless Nick. Nick got the full blast of it, but he's a ghost, he can't die again. And Hermione had the mirror. I bet you anything she was using to look around corners in case it came along."

"What about Mrs. Norris? I'm sure she didn't have a camera or mirror," said Ron.

Eponine remembered the night the floor was wet and didn't remember cleaning it.

(funny I don't remember the floor being wet)

"The water," Eponine said. "There was water on the floor that night."

"That's right, Eponine," said Harry. "She only saw the basilisk's reflection." They approached the torch to read more.

_Spiders flee before it, for it is their mortal enemy. The basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it._

"Wait!" said Eponine. "Hagrid came into Dumbledore's office with a dead rooster the day Justin Finch-Fletchley was attacked. I bet the Heir of Slytherin didn't want one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber of Secrets was opened."

"Of course! It all fits!" said Harry.

"But, how's the basilisk getting around? A dirty, great snake, someone must've seen it," said Ron.

"I think Hermione's answered that question. At the bottom of the page, in Hermione's handwriting was one word: _Pipes_.

"Pipes?" he said. "It's using the plumbing."

"Remember what Aragog said about that girl 50 years ago? She died in a bathroom? What if she never left?"

"Moaning Myrtle," Eponine whispered.

"_All students are to return to their dormitories at once,_" said McGonagall's voice, echoing on a megaphone. "_All teachers to the second floor corridor immediately._"

The three of them ran towards the second floor corridor, staying hidden in the shadows so they wouldn't get caught. There was McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey, Snape, Professor Flitwick, another professor they didn't recognize and Filch.

"As you can see," said McGonagall. "The Heir of Slytherin has left another message. Our worst fear has been realized. A student has been taken by the monster into the Chamber itself." She paused. "The students must be sent home. I'm afraid this is the end of Hogwarts."

Eponine's mouth dropped open. The _end_ of Hogwarts! Her worst fear had been confirmed: she would be sent to the poorhouse, slaving away in petty work with other sick and dying children.

Soon, Lockhart showed up, beaming.

"So sorry—dozed off—what have I missed?"

He didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with some remarkable like hatred. Snape stepped forward.

"A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Your moment has come at last."

Lockhart blanched. "My…my moment?"

"Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"

Lockhart kept staring, face white.

"Well, that's settled," said McGonagall. "We'll leave you to deal with the monster, Gilderoy. Your skills are, after all, legend."

Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble.

"Very well," he said. "I'll—I'll be in my office, getting—getting ready."

And he left the room.

"Who is it the monster has taken, Minerva?" asked Madam Pomfrey.

"Ginny Weasley," she replied.

She clapped a hand to her mouth, horrified. Snape even looked concerned; something very rare that Snape did.

Once the professors moved away from the wall, there in blood was written the words:  
HER SKELETON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER

"Ginny," said Ron, near the brink of tears.

There was a long silence. Eponine decided to break the ice.

"Well, we should go see Lockhart. He may be useless, but he's going to get inside the Chamber. We should at least tell him what we know."

Harry and Ron nodded in agreement. They sprinted towards Lockhart's office. They heard sounds of activity inside: scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps. They burst through the door.

"Professor!" said Harry. "We have some information…"

His office had been almost completely stripped. Large trunks were scattered about, some were open. Robes, jade-green, lilac, midnight-blue, had been hastily folded into one of them. Books were jumbled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk.

"Are you going somewhere?" Eponine asked.

"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart. "Urgent call—unavoidable—got to go…"

"What about my sister?" Ron said, jerkily.

"Well, as to that—most unfortunate," said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he "No one regets more than I…"

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" said Ron. "You can't go now!"

"Well—I must say—when I took the job," said Lockhart, stuffing what looked like to be a wig into a suitcase. "There was nothing in the job description…"

"You mean you're running away!" Eponine said disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books."

"Book can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.

"You wrote them!" said Harry.

"My dear boy," said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think _I'd_ done all those things."

"You're a fraud!" Eponine exclaimed. "You've just been taking credit for what other wizards have done."

"Is there anything you _can_ do?" Ron said.

"Yes. Now that you've mentioned it. I'm rather gifted with Memory Charms. Otherwise, you see, all those wizards would've gone blabbing and I wouldn't have sold another book." Soon, he turned towards his trunk. "In fact, I'm going to have to do the same to you."

Soon, Lockhart's wand was yanked out if his hand by an invisible hand and it floated in the air and it pointed at him threateningly. Harry and Ron took out their wands, pointing at him.

"Don't even think about it," said Harry.

Seeing how Eponine didn't have a wand, he put the pieces together.

"So, it is you," said Lockhart, staring at Eponine.

"I'm full of surprises," said Eponine.

"Well, Jane would be proud."

Eponine ignored him and with her powers, flung his wand out the open window.

They marched out of Lockhart's office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall, to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. They sent Lockhart in first. They were all pleased to see that he was shaking.

Moaning Myrtle was sobbing and moaning, floating in the air, back and forth. Soon, she heard them come in and she turned around.

"Who's there?" she asked. Then, she saw Harry and a smile stretched across her face. "Oh, hello Harry." She giggled coyly like a lovesick schoolgirl for a moment. "What do you want?"

"To ask how you died," he answered.

"Oh," she said with relish. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question. "It was dreadful. It happened right here in this very cubicle. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. I was crying. Then, I heard someone come in."

"Who was it?" Eponine asked.

"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "I was _distraught!_" She floated towards the four of them. "But they said something funny, a kind of made-up language and I realized it was a boy speaking, so I unlocked the door to tell him to go away and then…" she had a look of horror on her face. "I died."

"Just like that?" said Harry. "How?"

"I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. Over there by that sink," she pointed to a sink that had a long rust stain that ran down the back of the sink. It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. Harry turned the dial, but nothing came out.

"That sink hasn't worked for years," Eponine said. "Don't know why though."

"Bloody hell, 'Ponine," said Ron. "You've _really_ got to get out of this castle."

"I know," she said.

Harry touched the side of the faucet and carved into the side was a tiny snake.

"This is it," Harry whispered. "This is it, you guys. I think this is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets."

"Say something," said Ron. "Harry, 'Ponine, say something in Parseltongue."

Harry and Eponine looked each other and then, looked at the snake as though willing themselves to believe it was alive.

_Esh asssa_. "Open up."

Soon, there was a slight quaking noise. The next second, the sinks began to move; they separated, forming a rather large hole in the ground that was wide enough for a man to slide into. The first sink sank right into the floor below the grate, closing.

Lockhart was the first step forward to have a look. Then, he sighed with relief.

"Excellent, Harry, 'Ponine," said Lockhart. "Good work. Well, then, I'll just be…there's no need for me to stay." He was about to bolt when they shoved Lockhart back towards the hole.

"You first," Eponine said.

"Now, what good will it do?" he said, his voice, feeble.

"Better you than us," said Ron.

"Well…obviously, yes," said Lockhart. He turned towards the hole, his back towards the three of them. He looked nervous. "Sure you don't want to test it first?" he asked.

That's when Eponine rolled her eyes with impatience and used her powers to push him. He let out a shout that echoed throughout the entire fall. He disappeared into the blackness and landed with a crash.

"It's really quite filthy down here," his voice came from below.

"Alright," said Harry. "Let's go."

"Oh, Harry," said Moaning Myrtle. They turned to her and saw she was smiling. "If you die down there, you're welcome to share my toilet."

Ron made a disgusted look while Eponine let out a giggle. Harry smiled weakly. "Um…thanks, Myrtle," he said.

Then, Harry jumped followed by Ron and lastly, Eponine. It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. There were more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, and they knew they were falling deeper below the school than the dungeons. Their screams echoed throughout the pipes; Ron's scream cracked an octave above his normal speaking voice. Eponine wanted to laugh, but of course, this was no time for laughter.

And then, just as they began to worry about what would happen when they hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and they shout out the end with a crackling, wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. Lockhart was already on his feet and dusting himself off, covered with slime and white as a ghost. Harry and Ron stood up, pointing their wands at Lockhart as to make sure he didn't do anything stupid.

"Urgh!" said Ron.

They looked on the floor and saw that there were thousands of skeletons of rats. The bones cracked beneath them when they walked on them.

"Now, remember:" said Harry. "Any sign of movement, close your eyes straight away."

They nodded.

"Go on," said Ron, pointing his wand at Lockhart, gesturing towards a tunnel that Harry and Eponine head towards.

They stopped when they saw something huge and curved, lying across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.

"What's this?" Ron asked.

"It looks like a snake," said Lockhart, his voice trembling.

"It's a snakeskin," said Harry, examining it.

"Bloody hell," said Ron. "Whoever shed this must've been sixty feet long…or more."

Lockhart fainted.

"Heart of a lion, this one," Eponine said, her eyes rolling in annoyance.

Soon, Lockhart seized Ron's wand, straightening out, panting with a wild look in his eyes and a gleaming smile on his face.

"The adventure ends here," he said. "But don't fret. The world will know our story: how I was too late to save the girl, how you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. So, you first, Mr. Potter—say goodbye to your memories."

He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand and yelled, "_Obliviate!_"

The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. Lockhart was flung into the air and he hit the stone ceiling. Soon, the entire room shook and then great chunks of tunnel ceiling fell to the ground, forming a large stone wall. Eponine and Harry flung their arms over their heads to protect themselves from falling rock. A large boulder came towards them, but Eponine used her powers to make it bounce over them.

Soon, it stopped.

"Harry?" said Ron's voice, coming from the wall of broken rock. "Eponine?"

Eponine and Harry got to their feet and ran towards the wall.

"Ron!" he shouted. "Ron, are you OK?"

"I'm fine," the muffled voice of Ron came from behind the rock fall.

They looked from a tiny opening and saw Lockhart sit up, groaning. He was smiling and stared at Ron.

"Hello," he said. "Who are you?"

"Um…Ron Weasley," he said.

"Really? And, uh, who-who am I?" he said as though he had no clue.

Eponine couldn't help herself but giggle.

"Lockhart's Memory Charm backfired. He hasn't got a clue who he is."

"It's an odd sort of place isn't it?" he said, cheerfully. He picked up a rock and tossed it. "Do you live here?"

"No," said Ron, raising his eyebrows, taking the rock from him.

"Really?"

Ron took the rock and smashed him over the head with it, knocking him out unconscious. Eponine knew they were wasting time.

"What do I do now?" said Ron.

"You stay here and try to shift some of this rock so we can get back through," said Harry. "We'll go and find Ginny."

The two of them took off and went down the tunnel. They came to the end of the tunnel and found a circular door with seven serpents. Their eyes were set with great, glinting emeralds. Eponine's throat went dry. Harry and Eponine looked at each other and they nodded.

_Esh hasssa_! "Open!" they said, in a low, faint hiss.

Soon, a snake came slithering out and the heads of the seven serpents moved aside to make way for the one that was moving. Soon, the door opened before them; Eponine grabbed Harry's hand and together they walked inside, shaking head to foot.

They stood at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. There were rows of carved serpents with their fangs exposed and tongues waving, staring angrily at them as though they were unwelcome here. The floor was wet. At the end of the chamber was a huge head of a statue that was as high as the chamber 

itself, standing against the back wall. The face was ancient and monkeyish with a long beard that was buried beneath a large fountain of water and hair that was pulled back, waving as though the wind was blowing through it.

At the foot of the statue's head lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming red hair.


	9. The Heir of Slytherin

Chapter Nine

The Heir of Slytherin

"_Ginny!_" Harry muttered.

The two of them broke into a run to her. They stopped; Harry dropped his wand and it landed with a clink on the stone floor. The two of them knelt on the floor.

Her face was white as marble and her eyes were closed.

"Ginny, please don't be dead," he muttered, desperately. "Wake up. Wake up. Please wake up."

"She won't wake," said a soft voice coming from a dark corner.

The two of them spun around in the direction of the voice. A tall, black haired boy was walking towards them. He was strangely blurred around the edges as though they were looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him—

"Tom? Tom Riddle?" said Harry.

Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes of either of them.

"What do you mean she won't wake?" Eponine asked. "Is she…"

"She's still alive," said Riddle. "But only just."

They kept staring at him. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen.

"Are you a ghost?" she asked.

"A memory," Riddle said, quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."

He pointed towards the black book that Ginny held in her arm. For a second, the both of them wondered how it got there—but there were more pressing matters to deal with. Eponine touched Ginny's hand.

"She's cold as ice," she said to Harry.

"Ginny," said Harry. "Please don't be dead. Wake up! Wake up!" He turned to Tom. "You've got to help me, Tom. There's a basilisk."

"It won't come until it's called," said Riddle, calmly.

Harry looked for his wand and then, saw that Riddle was holding it.

"Give me my wand, Tom," Harry said.

"You won't be needing it," he replied.

"Listen, we've got to go," Eponine said, desperately. "We've got to save her."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. You see, as poor Ginny grows weaker, I grow stronger."

"What?" Eponine whispered.

She and Harry looked at each other, white faced and wide-eyed. Then, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

"Yes. It was Ginny Weasley who opened the Chamber of Secrets."

"No!" said Harry. "It couldn't. She wouldn't."

"It was Ginny Weasley who set the basilisk on the Mudbloods and Filch's cat. Ginny who wrote the threatening messages on the walls."

"But why?" Eponine asked.

"Because I told her to. You'll find I can be very persuasive. Not that she knew what she was doing. She was, shall we say, in a kind of trance." He paused. "Still, the power of the diary began to scare her and she tried to dispose of it in the girls' bathroom. And then, who should find it but you two? The very people I was most anxious to meet."

"And why would you want to meet us?" Harry said.

"I knew I had to talk to you two, meet you if I could. So, I decided to show you my capture of that brainless oaf, Hagrid to gain your trust."

"Hagrid's my friend!" Harry said.

"And you framed him, didn't you," Eponine said, angrily.

"It was my word against Hagrid's," Riddle said. "Only Dumbledore seemed to think he was innocent."

Harry smiled. "I bet Dumbledore saw right through you."

"He certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after that. I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school so I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages so that one day, I would be able to lead another to finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."

"Well, you haven't finished it this time," said Harry. "In a few hours, the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be alright again."

"Haven't I told you? Killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore. For many months now, my new target is you two." He paused, staring at them. "How is it that babies with no extraordinary magical talents were able to defeat the greatest wizard of all time?" He turned to Harry. "How is that you escaped with nothing more than a scar while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?" Then to Eponine, "And how is it that you escaped with not so much as a mark on you while you drove Lord Voldemort away by merely hurling objects at him?"

"Why do you care about how we escaped?" Eponine said. "And why do you care about my powers?"

"Lord Voldemort was after your time," Harry added.

"I had heard about your astonishing powers. Let's just say your ancestors had the same powers, especially that Mudblood mother of yours, Jane."

"What? How did you know my mother?" Eponine exclaimed. "And how do you know _any_ of my ancestors?"

"Let's just say we had a rather short meeting…before I killed her." He turned to Harry. "And to answer your question, Harry: Voldemort is my past, present and future."

With Harry's wand, he traced it through the air, writing three shimmering words that glowed like fire:

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

Then, he waved the wand once again and the letters of his name rearranged themselves:

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

Eponine stared at Tom with wide eyes. "You…"

"You're the Heir of Slytherin," said Harry.

"You're Voldemort," Eponine said.

"Surely, you didn't think I was going to keep my filthy, Mudblood father's name. I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? I, keep the foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No. I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak when I became the greatest sorcerer in the world."  
"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest sorcerer in the world!" Harry shouted.

"Dumbledore has been driven from this castle by the mere memory of me."

"He'll never be gone. Not as long as those who remain loyal to him."

Eponine only stared, unable to process the information. Tom Riddle had killed her mother and had known very specific details about the night her mother died as well as her powers.

"Yes, 'Ponine. _I_ killed your mother. I would've killed you if it hadn't been those powers you inherited from her. After you drove me away, I realized, perhaps I shouldn't kill you. Perhaps you would be of great use to me, especially since you are the bearer of Nicolas Flamel's Stone." With Harry's wand, he moved aside her blouse to reveal the glowing heart. He reached his hand towards it and felt the heat. "I see that you have _both_ powers of the Stones. I can feel their powers."

Soon, there was music in the air. The three of them whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber. The music grew louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hairs on Eponine's neck and made her heart feel as though it was swelling twice its size. Then, the music reached such a pitch that she could feel her own ribs vibrating.

A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music to the vaulted ceiling. Its black talons gripped a ragged bundle and its tail was long with scarlet feathers as those of a peacock's.

"Fawkes?" Harry breathed.

A second later, the bird flew straight towards Harry and it dropped the ragged thing it was carrying in his arms and flew away. Harry examined the ragged bundle and saw it was the Sorting Hat.

"So this is what Dumbledore sends his defenders!" Riddle laughed. "A songbird and an old hat." Riddle cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, then turned towards the statue of Salazar Slytherin and hissed—both of them understood what he was saying.

"_Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four_."

The two of them stared at the statue of Salazar Slytherin. Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. Horrorstruck, the two of them saw that his mouth was opening, wider and wider to make a huge black hole. And something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering from its depths.

"Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against the famous Harry Potter and Eponine Black," Riddle said.

The two of them broke into a run.

"_Locomotor Mortis!_" Riddle said; Eponine fell to the ground. "Not you, 'Ponine. I'd like to test your powers against Lord Voldemort."

"EPONINE!" Harry yelled.

"RUN, HARRY!" Eponine yelled back. "JUST RUN! DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME!"

Eponine closed her eyes; something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. The room shuddered—she knew what was happening, she could sense it, could almost see the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth. She heard Riddle's hissing voice:

"_Kill the boy! Don't touch the girl!_" Then, to the both of them, "Parseltongue won't save either of you now. It only obeys me."

Eponine heard it slither toward Harry and she heard Harry's running steps echo throughout the Chamber. She opened her eyes and saw that Harry had fallen on the ground and that Fawkes was on top of the basilisk's head, gouging the yellow eyes; dark blood splattered the floor and the basilisk roared with pain, spitting in agony.

"NO!" Riddle roared. "Your bird may have blinded the basilisk, but it can still hear you."

The basilisk chased Harry into the pipes. Eponine lay on the ground helpless, staring with white hot anger at Riddle. Riddle whispered the counter curse and Eponine's legs were free.

"Now, to business, 'Ponine," he said. "Let's see if you're able to protect yourself now. Let's test those powers of yours, shall we, you bastard skivvy!" He raised his wand and said the spell, "_Asphixia!_"

Eponine soon felt invisible hands clasp around her throat. She gagged, her tongue lolling out and her eyes rolling in the back of her head and her head swelled up to twice its normal size as her air was cut off. Soon, the heart was glowing a blinding white color and a powerful pulse erupted and the entire room shook. Riddle fell and it released Eponine. She fell to her knees and coughed violently, tears leaked from her eyes.

"Impressive," said Riddle. "I've always envied you, Eponine. I've even envied all of your ancestors who inherited this power." He paused. "Pity. We could've made such a fine alliance: you and I. Two orphans who were abandoned by their fathers. Your powers and mine combined, we could be the greatest of all."

"I'll never join you," Eponine coughed. "You arrogant, foul scum of Salazar Slytherin!"

Riddle's face contorted with rage. "You will pay for your insult, you bastard Heir of Black!" He raised the wand and said the spell, "_Avada Kedavra!_"

Eponine's hands flew up and a jet of green light emerged from the end of Harry's wand. When Eponine opened her eyes, she saw that the spell being held back by an invisible wall between the spell and Eponine's hands. Her hands felt searing hot from holding it back; she could see the spell burning off her skin. Her heart continued to glow crimson red and soon, Eponine's eyes became the same color and her golden hair flickered similar to the flames of fire. The spell continued to push her backwards, causing her feet to slide across the floor. Waves of energy pulsed through her brain as she maintained the invisible wall between her and the spell.

(I must hold on don't let go don't let go)

Tom was the first to let go and the spell soon began to ball up in Eponine's hands. She threw it aside and it smashed the wall. Her eyes glowed red as she stared angrily at Riddle. He was no longer looking at Eponine, but the basilisk. His lips were tight as though he had eaten a lemon.

Eponine blinked her eyes and they returned to a normal blue-grey again. She saw that the basilisk was dead. So much time had gone by from what had happened between her and Riddle. Harry was staggered towards Ginny and Eponine, his hand clutching his arm, dragging a blood drenched sword and blood drenched fang. He fell to his knees, weak.

"Remarkable, isn't it how quickly the venom of the basilisk penetrates the body?" said Riddle to Harry. "I guess you have little more than a minute to live. You'll be with your dear Mudblood mother soon."

Eponine knelt beside Harry with tears in her eyes. Harry reached for Ginny's hand.

"Funny, the damage a silly little book can do," Riddle added. "Especially in the hands of a silly little girl."

Harry grabbed the diary and laid it on the stone floor to a page.

"What are you doing?" Riddle said.

For a split second, Harry, without thinking or considering, as though he had meant to do it all along, seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to him…

"Stop!" Riddle soon cried with a note of fear in his voice. "NO!"

Then, Harry plunged the fang into a page. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming all over Harry's hands, flooding the floor. Soon, a dreadful, piercing scream came from Riddle and a huge hole began to form in his chest as though he were being burned.

Eponine took the fang from Harry and she plunged it into the other page; ink spurted all over her hand.

(this is for my mother)

Now, a hole formed in Riddle's head. Harry closed the diary and together they took the fang and plunged it into the very heart of the book. Soon, Riddle was twisting, screaming and flailing and soon he burst into yellow orange flames and then—

He was gone. Harry's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence. Silence except for the steady _drip_ _drip_ of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it and the pages were slightly scorched.

Soon, Ginny woke up suddenly as though she had woken up from a terrible nightmare with eyes wide open and her color returned to her face. She sat up and looked at Harry and Eponine.

"Harry," said Ginny. "It was me. But I swear, I didn't mean to. Riddle made me and…" She looked at Harry's arm and her eyes went wide. "You're hurt."

"Don't worry," he said, weakly. "Ginny, you need to get yourself out. Follow the Chamber and you'll find Ron."

Soon, there was that eerie musical note that echoed throughout the Chamber. A mass of scarlet and gold feathers flew and landed right between Harry and Eponine. It was Fawkes. He stared sadly at Harry.

"You were brilliant, Fawkes," said Harry. "I just wasn't quick enough."

Fawkes's head slid in and rested his head on Harry's arm. Thick, pearly tears were trickling down the glossy feathers and landed on the wound. Soon, it began to fade as each tear fell on the wound and it diminished.

Eponine and Ginny stared wide eyed at this sight.

"Of course," said Eponine. "Phoenix tears have healing powers."

Harry flexed his fingers and looked at Fawkes gratefully. "Thanks," he whispered, near tears and stroked the bird's feathers.

He turned towards Ginny. "It's alright, Ginny. It's over now."

"It's just a memory," Eponine added.

The three of them went towards the back of the tunnel. They heard the stone door close behind them with a soft hiss. After a few minutes progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached their ears.

"Ron!" said Harry, speeding up. "Ginny's OK. We've got her!"

He heard Ron give strangled cheer and they turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the sizeable gap he had managed to make in the rockfall.

"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened? And…where did that bird come from?"

Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny.

"He's Dumbledore's," said Harry.

"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry's hand.

"We'll explain when we get out of here," said Harry with a sideways glance at Ginny.

"But…"

"Later," said Eponine shortly. They didn't think it was a good idea to tell Ron yet who'd been opening the Chamber, not in front of Ginny anyway. "So, how are we going to get out of here?" She was looking for openings.

Fawkes swooped past Harry and was now fluttering in front of him, his beady eyes bright in the dark. He was waving his talons. Harry looked at him with uncertainty.

"I think he wants you to grab hold…" said Ron, looking perplexed. "But you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there…"

"Of course. Phoenixes can carry heavy loads. OK. We'll have to hold onto one another. Professor Lockhart will be first, then you Ron and then, you 'Ponine. Ginny and I'll go last."

Harry tucked the sword and the Sorting Hat into his belt, Fawkes took a hold of Lockhart's robes and Ron took a hold of his foot, Eponine took a hold of Ron's robes and Harry took a hold of Eponine's feet, and Ginny held on tightly to Harry's waist.

An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread and in the next second there was a rush of wings, they were flying upward from the pipes. Lockhart was smiling and was heard shouting,

"AMAZING! This is just like magic!"

The chill air was whipping through Eponine's long, golden hair and before she'd stopped enjoying the ride, it was over—all five of them landed on the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and the sink that hid the pipe was sliding back into place.


	10. Awards

Chapter Ten

Awards

Eponine waited outside Dumbledore's office. She listened in from the outside.

"You two both realize, of course, that in the past few hours you've broken perhaps over a dozen school rules," he said.

She could hear Harry and Ron's voice saying softly, filled with guilt. "Yes, sir," they replied.

"There is sufficient enough evidence to have you both expelled."

"Yes, sir."

"Therefore, it is only fitting both of you and Eponine shall receive Special Awards for Services to the School."

Eponine felt a smile stretch across her face. An award for a Special Service!

"Thanks, sir," said Ron.

"And now, Mr. Weasley, if you would have an owl deliver these release papers to Azkaban," said Dumbledore. "I believe we want our gamekeeper back. And while you're going out, ask Eponine to come in."

Ron's footsteps approached the door and he said that Dumbledore wanted to see her.

"Ah, good, Eponine," said Dumbledore. "I'm glad you're here." He looked at Eponine over his half-moon glasses. "First, I want to thank both you and Harry. You must've shown real loyalty down in the Chamber. Nothing but that could've called Fawkes to you two."

He paused and approached them. "Second, I sense something is troubling you and Harry, am I right?"

Eponine nodded. "Yes, Headmaster," she replied. "I…I couldn't help but notice that there were some similarities between Harry, Tom Riddle and I."

"I see. Well, you both can speak Parseltongue. Do you know why?"

They shook their heads.

"Because Lord Voldemort can speak Parseltongue. If I'm not mistaken, he transferred some of his powers to you, Harry the night he gave you that scar."

"Voldemort transferred his powers to me?" Harry said, thunderstruck.

"Not intentionally. But, yes." He turned to Eponine. "I believe that you, Eponine, might have inherited the ability from your ancestors. The night Lord Voldemort tried to kill you, he awakened the ability when his spell was absorbed into your pendant. Take a look."

He took Eponine's pendant and flipped it over to the back and there was a tiny, scorched crack.

"So, the Sorting Hat was right. I _do_ belong in Slytherin," said Harry.

"It's true, Harry. You possess many of the qualities that Voldemort himself prizes: determination, resourcefulness, and if I may say so, a certain disregard for the rules." He paused and gestured to the Sorting Hat. "Why, then, did the Sorting Hat place you in Gryffindor?"

"Because I asked it to."

"Exactly, Harry, exactly. Which makes you different from Lord Voldemort. It is not our abilities that show us what we truly are. It is our choices."  
Harry nodded.

"If you want proof why you belong in Gryffindor, then I suggest you look more closely at this." Dumbledore picked up the blood-stained silver sword and handed it to Harry. "Be careful."

They looked at the blade, the rubies glittering in the light and they saw the name engraved just below the hilt: _GODRIC GRYFFINDOR_

"It would take a true Gryffindor to pull _that_ out of the hat," said Dumbledore.

Soon, the door opened behind them and in came Lucius Malfoy. Cowering behind his legs was…

"Dobby?" said Eponine.

"So, this is your master. The family you serve is the Malfoy's," said Harry.

"I'll deal with you later," said Lucius Malfoy. He walked towards Dumbledore's desk with Dobby scurrying after him with a look of abject terror on his face. He pushed the two of them aside with his cane. "Out of my way, Potter and Cinder-soot." He turned to Dumbledore, fixing his cold eyes upon him. "So, it is true. You have returned."

"When the governors learned that Arthur Weasley's daughter was taken into the Chamber, they saw fit to summon me back," said Dumbledore, smiling serenely.

"Ridiculous," Lucius said.

"Curiously, Lucius, several of them were under the impression that you would curse their family if they did not agree to suspend me in the first place."

"How dare you!"

"I beg your pardon?"

"My sole concern has always been and always will be the welfare of this school and of course, its students." He paused. "The culprit has been identified, I presume?" he sneered.

"Oh, yes," Dumbledore said with a smile.

"And?" Lucius said, sharply. "Who is it?"

There was a long silence. "Voldemort. Only this time, he chose to act through somebody else by means of this." He held up the small black book with the large hole through the center, watching Lucius closely.

"I see."

Dobby yanked Eponine's ragged skirt and Harry's robe. He did something odd: his great eyes fixed meaningfully on the two of them, and he gestured to Lucius with his eyes and head. The pieces fell into place: _he_ was the one who tried to bring back Lord Voldemort.

"Fortunately," continued Dumbledore. "Our young Mr. Potter and Miss Black discovered it. One hopes that no more of Lord Voldemort's old school things should find their way into innocent hands. The consequences for the one responsible would be severe."

"Well," said Lucius, turning towards the two kids; his face was suddenly masklike. "Let us hope that Mr. Potter and Miss Black will always be around to save the day."

"Don't worry," said Harry.

"We will be," said Eponine.

Dumbledore smiled when he heard them say this, pleased to see that they were not afraid of Lucius.

Lucius nodded his head to Dumbledore. "Dumbledore." He turned to Dobby. "Come, Dobby. We're leaving." Dobby went ahead of Lucius and he kicked him. Dobby squealed with pain; he whimpered as he got up and rubbed his elbow. Lucius hit him on the back of his head with his cane. Eponine was near the point of letting tears fall at this sight.

"Sir," said Harry. "I wonder if I could have that?"

Dumbledore nodded. Harry took the diary. Together, Eponine and Harry exited Dumbledore's office.

"You're sure that house-elves can be set free with just a piece of clothing?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Eponine said. "You have _no_ idea how happy they are, especially maltreated elves, when they're set free. Just give him a slimy sock and he'll treasure it like a priceless jewel."

Harry removed his shoe, pulled off his slimy, filthy sock and stuffed it inside the diary. Lucius Malfoy's blond head came into their view as he strutted down the hall towards the stairs.

"Mr. Malfoy!" called Harry. Lucius stopped and turned around. "I have something of yours." Harry handed him the diary.

"Mine? I don't know what you're talking about," he said, pretending to be innocent.

"Oh, I think you do, sir. I think you slipped the diary into Ginny's cauldron that day at Diagon Alley."  
"You do, do you?" he said. He handed the diary to Dobby. He leaned in towards Harry, sneering. "Why don't you prove it?" Then to Dobby, "Come, Dobby."

"Open it," Eponine whispered.

Of course, Dobby responded as Eponine expected; his bat-like ears quivered and his green, tennis ball eyes went wide with happiness.

"Dobby?" Lucius called.

"Master has given Dobby a sock!" he said in wonderment.

"What? I didn't…"

"Master has presented Dobby with clothes. Dobby is free!"

Harry lifted his pant leg and showed Lucius the missing sock and Eponine grinned, sniggering a laugh.

"You two lost me my servant!" yelled Lucius. He pulled from his cane a shorter stick: the two of them flinched with terror. They realized it was his wand! He pointed it at the two of them, furiously and began to advance towards them.

Dobby stood in front of Eponine and Harry.

"You shall not harm Harry Potter and Eponine Black!" he said.

"_Adva…_"

Soon a blue light came from Dobby's hands along with a loud bang and Lucius was sent flying backwards and landed on his back. He got up, his face livid, straightening out his cloak and then pointed a threatening finger at them.

"Both of your parents were meddlesome fools, Potter and Black," said Lucius. "Mark my words, one day soon, you're going to meet the same sticky end." To Eponine, "As for you, Black, if it weren't for your family, you'd be dead by now, especially your pure-blooded father and your slut, Mudblood mother!"

Eponine stared in horror. Lucius Malfoy knew her family! But how? Impossible! Eponine's mind bubbled with questions.

He walked away with a last, incensed stare at the pair of them, swinging his cloak and hurried out of sight.

"Harry Potter and Eponine Black freed Dobby," said Dobby, shrilly filled with tears. "How can Dobby ever repay them?"

"Just promise me something," said Harry.

"Anything, sir."

"Never try to save my life again."

"And you, Eponine, what can Dobby offer for you?"

Eponine only smiled. "Just don't ever do that thing you did with your powers. Otherwise, you're welcome to stay here at Hogwarts."

"Oh, yes!" Dobby squeaked with delight. "Thank you, kind Miss."

Eponine had been to many Hogwarts feasts for eight years, but never one quite like this. Nearly Headless Nick floated past the Gryffindor tables.

"Welcome back, Sir Nicholas," said a student.

"Thank you," said Nearly Headless Nick.

"Good evening, Sir Nicholas."

"Good evening."

"Good to see you, Sir Nicholas," said Eponine.

"Thank you."

Soon, Nearly Headless Nick floated towards the Great Hall's doors and there was Hermione.

"Hermione, welcome back," he said.

"Thanks, Sir Nicholas," said Hermione.

Eponine watched from under the table as her friends hugged Hermione. She wished she could join them if it weren't for Snape watching her like a dog. He was quite livid with the fact that she had received a Special Awards for Services to the School and because of that, he was ordered by Dumbledore to feed her three big meals a whole two weeks. Eponine had never been so happy in her life.

"Could I have your attention please?" McGonagall said.

All the chatter silenced and all eyes turned towards the staff table. Dumbledore stood up.

"Before we begin the feast," he began. "let's have a round of applause for Professor Sprout, Madam Pomfrey, who's Mandrake juice has been successfully administered to all who have been Petrified."

There was a round of applause.

"Also, in light of recent events, as a school treat, all final exams have been canceled."

There were loud cheers and claps that filled the Great Hall. Soon, the doors opened and in stepped a huge man. It was Hagrid!

"Sorry I'm late," he said. "The owl that delivered my release papers got all lost and confused. Some ruddy bird called Errol."

There were a few giggles and they all were looking at Ron. Ron's ears and face turned red with embarrassment. He stopped where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting and looked at them with eyes filled with gratefulness.

"And I'd just like to say that if it hadn't been for you, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Eponine, of course…" he looked in Eponine's direction. "I would still be you-know-where, so I would like to say thanks."

"There's no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid," Harry whispered. He got up and hugged him; his arms barely able to reach around him.

Dumbledore stood and clapped. Soon, the Great Hall flooded with applause and all but the Slytherins gathered around Hagrid, cheering. Even Eponine stood up to cheer with a smile across her face. All the professors were clapping for Hagrid. Malfoy and the Slytherin table sat at the table, looking very livid and annoyed.

Soon, Eponine's friends were packing up and leaving. Eponine managed to sneak away from her chores, carrying a tray with goblets filled with pumpkin juice.

"What's this for?" asked Hermione.  
"I thought we could celebrate our friendship," Eponine said.

They smiled and accepted the goblets.

"To friendship, loyalty, and bravery," said Eponine.

"Cheers," they said together, clinking their glasses and they drank their pumpkin juice. They looked at each other, knowing that their friendship would last forever.


End file.
